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Scientific  basis  of  spiritualism. 


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THE 


SCIENTIFIC    BASIS 


SPIRITUALISM. 


By   EPES    SARGENT, 

AUTHOR  OF   "PLANCHETTE,    OR    THE  DESPAIR   OF  SCIENCE,"    "  THE   PROOF 
PALPABLE   OF   IMMORTALITY,"    ETC 


Un  scepticisme  pr6somptueux  qui  rejette  les  faits  sans  examen 
est  plus  funeste  que  la  credulit6  qui  les  accepte. 

Alexander  Von  Humboldt. 


SECOND    EDITION. 

BOSTON : 

COLBY  AND    RICH,   PUBLISHERS, 

No.  9  Montgomery  Place. 

1881. 


4^ 


S3 


COPYRIGHT, 

1880, 
Bt     EpES     SARGE»Ti 


Stereotyped  at  the  Boston  Stereotype  Foundry, 
No.  4  Pearl  Street. 


PREFACE. 


The  claim  that  there  is  a  scientific  basis  for  Spirit- 
ualism will  be  an  offence  to  many.  Indeed,  the  mere 
announcement  of  this  work  has  called  forth  adverse 
pre-judgments  because  of  its  title.  But  constantly 
recurring  facts,  which  have  stood  the  test  of  more 
than  thirty-three  years  of  ridicule,  denunciation,  and 
antagonism,  must  be  admitted  as  having  within  them 
some  stubborn  elements  of  vitality,  if  not  of  scientific 
verification. 

What  is  science  but  a  collection  of  truths,  suggest- 
ive of  an  inference  ?  According  to  John  Stuart  Mill, 
the  language  of  science  is,  ''  This  is,  or  This  is  not ; 
Tills  does,  or  does  not  happen.  Science  takes  cogni- 
zance of  a  phenomenon,  and  endeavors  to  discover  its 
law."  Surely,  under  this  ruling  Spiritualism  has  a 
scientific  basis  in  its   proven  facts. 

The  man  claiming  to  be  scientific,  who  imagines  that 
he  knows  all  the  laws  of  nature  so  thoroughly  that 
occurrences  like  clairvoyance  and  direct  writing  can- 
not take  place  without  transcending  the  boundaries  of 
scientific  recognition,  is  himself  under  a  hallucination 
more  serious  than  any  which  he  affects  to  deplore. 

The  neglect  in  all  ages  of  the  world  to  treat  these 
and  cognate  facts  with  fearless,  scientific  scrutiny,  has 

3 


4  PREFACE. 

been  productive  of  incalculable  mischief.  In  ancient 
times,  the  assumption  that  all  that  comes  from  the 
unseen  world,  certified  by  seeming  miracle  or  preter- 
human power,  must  be  from  God  or  from  gods,  led  to 
all  sorts  of  theosophic  impositions,  superstitions,  spu- 
rious revelations,  and  wild  delusions. 

In  mediseval  times,  and  during  the  witchcraft  ex- 
citement, monstrous  cruelties  were  practised  under 
the  sanction  of  law  through  the  failure  to  recognize 
that  nothing  occurring  in  the  realm  of  nature  can  be 
supernatural,  and  that  all  phenomena  whatever  are 
subjects  for  cool  scientific  investigation  and  analysis. 
Certain  remarkable  psychic  phenomena  were  con- 
strued as  Satanic  and  unnatural,  and  an  ancient  He- 
brew prohibition,  founded  in  ignorance,  was  made  the 
excuse  for  punishing  with  death  innocent  persons  sus- 
pected of  producing  in  others,  medially  affected,  any 
inexplicable  manifestation  of  abnormal  power. 

In  our  own  day,  though  belief  in  spirits  has  been 
repudiated  extensively,  the  credulity  of  unbelief 
threatens  new  dangers.  By  dismissing  the  phenom- 
ena as  impossible,  unnatural,  or  supernatural,  special- 
ists in  science,  —  who,  however  eminent  in  their  own 
departments,  are  ignorant  of  the  first  rudiments  of  the 
psycho-physical  science,  now  inchoate,  —  instead  of 
checking  superstition  by  their  scornful  attitude,  are 
really  giving  it  its  excuse  for  being.  Persons  experi- 
mentally sure  of  the  phenomena,  finding  that  they  can 
get  no  guidance  or  light  from  men  of  science,  qualified 
by  laborious  study  and  experiment  to  explain  the  oc- 
currences, either  put  premature  constructions  on  what 
they  witness,  or  yield  a  too  hasty  credence  to  the 
assurances    of    some    medium    or    medial    pretender 


PREFACE.  5 

claiming  a  divine  or  high  spiritual  inspiration.  Even 
so  it  was  in  the  old  days  of  oracles,  seers,  and  myths, 
and  so  it  ma}^  be  again,  with  variations,  unless  a  sci- 
ence, at  once  searching  and  liberal,  reverent  and  in- 
trepid, shall  interpose  to  prevent  such  a  revival,  and 
protect  the  unwary  from  the  frauds  and  delusions  to 
which  a  little  display  of  medial  power  may  lead. 

The  attempt  made  in  1876,  in  London,  by  Professor 
Lankester,  a  specialist  in  physical  science,  wedded  to 
the  materialistic  monism  of  Haeckel,  to  put  a  stop  to 
the  phenomena  through  Henry  Slade,  the  medium,  and 
to  do  this  by  the  strong  arm  of  the  law,  was  simply  an 
act  of  superstition,  prompted  by  the  same  fanaticism 
(taking  the  form  of  unbelief  instead  of  belief)  which 
actuated  the  proceedings  of  ^'  Matthew  Hopkins,  of 
Manningtree,  Gent.,"  the  famous  English  "  witch- 
finder "  of  the  year  1645.  The  first  scientists  of  Ger- 
many at  once  exempted  Slade  from  Lankester's  suspi- 
cions ;  and  Zollner  says,  in  reference  to  Slade :  ''  The 
physical  facts  observed  by  us  in  his  presence  neg- 
atived on  every  reasonable  ground  the  supposition 
that  he,  in  one  solitary  case,  had  taken  refuge  in  im- 
posture. In  our  eyes,  therefore,  he  was  innocently 
condemned,  —  a  victim  of  his  accuser's  and  judge's 
limited  knowledge."  The  recent  remarkable  occur- 
rences in  open  church  at  Knockmore,  in  Ireland, 
where  hands  and  living  figures  have  mysteriously 
appeared,  show  how  important  it  is  that  these  phe- 
nomena should  no  longer  be  evaded. 

Rationally  studied  and  interpreted,  unmixed  with 
delusions  self-generated  or  imposed  by  others,  Spirit- 
ualism is  the  one  safeguard  against  all  superstitions. 
It  shows  that  the  unseen  world  is  as  much  within  the 


6  PREFACE. 

sphere  of  universal  nature  as  our  own ;  it  is  the  sol- 
vent of  many  mysteries  that  have  perplexed  philos- 
ophers and  stultified  historians ;  it  shows  that  not 
spirits,  but  our  own  misconstructions  and  unchecked 
passions,  are  what  we  have  most  to  fear.  That  bad 
persons  have  entered  its  ranks,  and  that  flighty  per- 
sons have  brought  it  into  ill-repute,  —  that  it  has  been 
used  to  deceive  or  mislead, —  should  make  the  obliga- 
tion all  the  more  obvious  to  the  generous  mind  to  help 
to  sift  and  co-ordinate  its  facts  and  arrest  its  abuses. 

It  is  therefore  with  regret  that  I  find  so  liberal  a 
champion  of  truth  as  E,.  W.  Emerson  recommending 
ignorance  as  the  best  policy  in  regard  to  a  subject 
which,  in  the  hands  of  fanaticism  or  imposture,  has 
been  the  cause  of  such  great  disasters  and  mistakes, 
public  and  private,  as  far  back  as  history  goes.  In  a 
recent  article  on  '•'•  Demonology,"  this  distinguished 
writer  remarks:  "There  are  many  things  of  which  a 
wise  man  might  wish  to  be  ignorant,  and  these  spiritual 
phenomena  are  such.  Shun  them  as  you  would  the 
secrets  of  the  undertaker  and.  the  butcher."  Et  tu, 
Brute  ? 

This  is  all  wrong,  ideally,  really,  and  morally.  Even 
the  comparisons  by  which  the  sentiment  is  illustrated 
are  vitiated  by  unsoundness  ;  for  however  our  esthetic 
sensibilities  may  recoil,  what  is  it  but  pusillanimity 
to  ignore  "the  secrets  of  the  undertaker  and  the 
butcher  "  ?  Have  we  no  care  as  to  how  the  cast-off 
body  of  the  beloved  one  may  be  disposed  of?  Are 
we  indifferent  as  to  what  sufferings  may  be  inflicted 
on  the  poor  brute  whose  life  is  to  minister  to  our 
carnivorous  appetite?  The  sentiment  has  no  saving 
grace ;  it  is  hollow  and  spurious.     Not  by  trying  to 


PREFACE.  7 

make  us  shun  the  truth  as  something  disagreeable  will 
the  philosopher  deter  any  but  the  timid  or  weak  from 
finding  out  all  that  is  genuine  and  demonstrable  in 
phenomena  foreshadowing  a  continuous  life  for  man. 

Contrast  the  advice  with  that  of  Dr.  Jolm  W.  Dra- 
per, the  well-known  professor  of  chemistry  and  physi- 
ology in  the  Upiversity  of  New  York.  Referring  to 
the  mysteries  of  life,  he  says :  "  God  has  formed  our 
understandings  to  grasp  all  these  things.  I  have  no 
sympathy  with  those  who  say  of  this  or  that  physio-^ 
logical  problem,  ^  It  is  above  our  reason.'  "  And,  as  if 
anticipating  these  supersensual  phenomena,  which  our 
Concord  sage  would  have  us  shun,  the  eminent  physi- 
ologist tells  us,  that  the  application  of  exact  science 
to  physiology  is  '^  bringing  into  the  region  of  physical 
demonstration  the  existence  and  immortality  of  the 
soul  of  man,  and  furnishing  conspicuous  illustrations 
of  the  attributes  of  God.'' 

Mark  too  the  language  of  the  venerable  German 
philosopher,  I.  H.  Fichte,  uttered  a  few  weeks  before 
his  death  in  1879:  "Notwithstanding  my  age  and  my 
exemption  from  the  controversies  of  the  day,  I  feel  it 
my  duty  to  bear  testimony  to  the  great  fact  of  Spirit- 
ualism. No  one  should  keep  silent."  A  worthy  ut- 
terance from  the  son  of  the  illustrious  contemporary 
of  Kant,  and  the  inheritor  of  his  sire's  splendid  en- 
dowments ! 

The  progress  of  modern  Spiritualism  has  been  some- 
thing marvellous.  In  less  than  forty  years  it  las 
gained  at  least  twenty  millions  of  adherents  in  all  parts 
of  the  world.  Adapting  itself,  through  its  eclectic 
affinity  with  all  forms  of  truth,  to  aM  nationalities  and 
classes,  and  repeating  its  peculiar  manifestations  every- 


8  PREFACE. 

where  among  persons  ignorant  of  its  forms  and  its 
antecedents,  it  presents  the  features  of  a  universal 
truth,  the  developments  of  a  grand,  transcendent  sci- 
ence, confirming  all  the  traditions  and  intuitions  of  the 
soul's  immortality,  and  heralding  a  dawn  before  whose 
light  every  other  science,  relating  to  the  nature  and 
destiny  of  man,  must  seek  to  orient  itsejf  hereafter. 

Of  the  present  volume  more  than  four-fifths  is  now 
for  the  first  time  published.  Passages  here  and  there, 
often  much  altered,  have  been  adopted,  from  contribu- 
tions made  by  me  during  the  last  thirty  years  to  nearly 
all  the  periodical  publications  devoted  to  the  subject, 
in  England  and  the  United  States.  As  parts  of  the 
work  were  written  at  long  intervals,  repetitions  of  the 
same  line  of  thought  may  be  found  ;  but  these,  though 
critically  regarded  a  blemish,  m^ay  have  their  uses  for 
the  reader  in  emphasizing  the  more  essential  consid- 
erations. Objections  to  the  existence  of  a  fact  of 
nature  must  needs  be  unscientific ;  but  as  they  con- 
tinue to  be  brought  up  against  Spiritualism  by  persons 
otherwise  well  informed,  I  have  devoted  some  space 
to  their  refutation. 

But  the  time  has  gone  by  when  the  facts  of  this 
volume  could  be  dismissed  as  coincidences,  delusions, 
or  frauds.  The  hour  is  coming,  and  now  is,  when  the 
man  claiming  to  be  a  philosopher,  physical  or  meta- 
physical, who  shall  overlook  the  constantly  recurring 
phenomena  here  recorded,  will  be  set  down  as  behind 
the  age,  or  as  evading  its  most  important  question. 
Spiritualism  is  not  now  ^'  the  despair  of  science,"  as  I 
called  it  on  the  title-page  of  my  first  book  on  the  sub- 
ject. Among  intelligent  observers  its  claims  to  scien- 
tific recognition  are  no  longer  a  matter  of  doubt. 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    I. 

The  Basis  :  —  Clairvoyance  ;  Direct  Writing. 

PA(5E 

Typical  Facts  —  Meaning  of  Spirit  —  Theory  of  Leibnitz  — 
Proved  Phenomena  —  Medial  Frauds  —  Transfiguration  — 
So-called    Exposures  —  Testimony  of    a   Jurist  —  Fairbairn 

—  Hopps  —  Herbert  Spencer  —  Form-Manifestaiions  among 
Indians  —  Personal  Experience  in  Pneumatography— Joseph 
Cook's  Statement — Watkins,  the  Medium  —  Hiram  Sibley's 
Testimony — J.  Edwin  Hunt's  —  Phillips,  the  Medium  —  A. 
E.  Wallace's  Testimony —  ZoUner,  Ulrici,  Fichte,  and  Wundt 

—  Experiences  of  Baron  Guldenstubbe — Demonphobia  — 
Testimony  of  Storer,  Hayward,  Beals,  Wetherbee,  Timayenis, 
Stebbins  —  Platform  Proofs  —  Mrs.  Simpson  —  Bellachini, 
the  Conjurer  —  Stainton-Moses  —  Dr.  Wyld  —  Slade  .      13-66 

CHAPTER  11. 

Facts  against  Theories. 

The  Materialistic  Theory  insufficient  —  Prof.  Denslow's  State- 
ment—  His  Experiences  with  Slade  and  Mrs.  Simpson  —  Sam- 
uel Watson,  Wesley,  Priestley,  Oberlin  —  List  of  .Phenomena 

—  Theory  of  Mundane  Ag^ency — Significance  of  the  Phenom- 
ena—  Zdllner's  ExperimenJ;s — Knots  in  an  Endless  Cord  — 
Testimony  of  T.  L.  Nichols  —  Opinions  of  Plutarch,  Cicero, 
St.  Augustine — The  "  Scientific  American"  —  Clairvoyance 
and  Direct  Writing  as  a  Scientific  Basis  —  Cognate  Phenom- 
ena analogically  proved 67-86 

CHAPTER    ni. 

Eeply  to  Objections  of  Wundt. 

Open  Letter  to  Ulrici — Slade  in  Lcipsic  —  Wundt  contradicts 
Himself — Objections  to  a  Scientific  Kecognition  —  No  Viola- 
tion of  Nature's  Laws  —  Objections  answered  —  Youmans  — 

9 


10  CONTENTS. 

A  Common  Fallacy  —  Universal  Causality  —  Frivolous  Charges 
asrainst  Slade  —  Wundt's  Ignorance  of  the  Subject  —  Ulrici  and 
Fichte  on  the  Phenomena  —  Prayer  of  the  Prince  Imperial  — 
Witchcraft  explained  by  Spiritualism  —  Quotation  from  '-'Plan- 
chette  "  —  Blackftone  —  Lecky  —  The  Phelps  Phenomena  — 
Cook  on  the  Spiritual  Body  —  Materialization —  Baden  Powell 

—  Animism  —  Leibnitz  and  Kant — Notions  of  the  Uncivilized 

—  Jugglery  refuted  by  the  Jugglers  ....      87-13o 


CHAPTER    ly. 

Clairvoyance  a  Spiritual  Faculty. 

More  Objections  —  A.  E.  Wallace  —  Dr.  Elliotson  —  William 
White  —  Our  Visit  to  Dr.  Ashburner  —  J.  F.  Deleuze  —  Dr. 
Gcorget's  Posthumous  Testimony — Analysis  of  Clairvoyance 
—  Importance  of  Objective  Phenomena  —  Trance-Speaking 
often  at  Fault — Deceptive  Spirits  —  Mrs.  Richmond  against 
the  Scientific  Basis  —  Gross  Contradictions  —  Science  the  only 
Safeguard  —  Tyndall's  Investigations  —  William  Crookes  — 
T.  W.  Higginson  —  Darius  Lyman  on  Scientific  Specialists  — 
John  Fiske  —  Clairvoyance  again  —  Alexis  Didier  —  Houdin's 
Letter  —  Alexis  explains  —  Hudson  Tuttle  —  Testimony  of  Dr. 
Ciirpenter's  Brother 131-162 


CHAPTER    Y. 

Is  Spiritual  Science  Hostile  to  Eeligion? 

The  Argument  from  Tradition  —  John  Stuart  Mill's  Admission 

—  System  of  I.  H.  Fichte  —  Theodore  Parker  on  Spiritualism 

—  Henry  Thomas  Buckle  —  What  is  Eeligion  ?  —  Coleridge  — 
Primitive  Christianity — Science  and  Eeligion — HoAvells  — 
Phenomenon  of  Cin'ist's  Eeappearance  —  Eeply  to  Weiss  — 
Form-Manifestations  —  Dr.  Gully  —  Author's  Experience  in 
Spirit-Identity  —  Materialization  —  Holyoake  —  Thackeray  — 
Our  Basis  unassailable      .......    163-195 


CHAPTER    VI. 

Phenomenal  Proofs. — The  Spirit-Body. 

The  Spirit-Hand — Full-Form  Manifestations  —  Testimony  of  Dr. 
Gardner,  Dr.  Wilkinson,  &c.  —  Burnham  describes  Forma- 
tion of  Spirit-Hand—  Calmut's  Eemarkable  Testimony — Wil- 
lis's Account  of  th'.'  Stabbing  of  a  Spirit-Hand  —  Early  Egyp- 
tian Testimony  —  What  is  Matter? —  Levitation  —  St.  The- 
resa—  Will  am  Fishbough — Charles  Bonnet  —  Dr.  J.  W. 
Draper  —  The   German  Physicists — Assertions   of  Clairvoy- 


CONTENTS.  11 


< 


ants  —  Gillingham  —  Mtiller  —  Miss  Elackwell  —  Stewart  and 
Tait  —  Guizot  —  Pliny  —  T.  P.  Barkas  —  John  Mould  —  Dr. 
Gully  to  Author  —  Lord  Bacon  —  Descartes  —  The  Soul  ex- 
tended—J.  E.  Walter      196-213 


CHAPTER    VII. 

Proofs  from  Induced  Somnambulism,  etc. 

Review  of  Mesmerism  —  Cuvier  and  Laplace  —  Gall,  Spurz- 
heim,  Hahnemann,  Hamilton,  Lacordaire,  &c.  —  Author's  Ex- 
periences—  Dr.  Collyer  —  Mr.  Peale  —  Mrs.  A.  C.  Mowatt  — 
Experiments  in  Mesmerism  —  Braid's  Theory  —  Phenomena 
through  Mrs.  Mowatt  —  Rev.  W.  E.  Channing,  N.  P.  Willis, 
and  Dr.  Mott  see  her  somnambulic  —  Effect  of  Mesmeric 
Treatment  —  Mrs.  Mowatt  at  Lenox  —  Mary  Howitt  on  her 
Character  —  Phenomena  through  Miss  Fancher  —  Objections 
3f  Beard  and  Hammond  —  Clairvoyance  a  Fixed  Fact — Ex- 
perts —  The  Money  Test  —  Townshend's  Facts  in  Mesmerism 
—  A  Dual  Consciousness  —  Case  of  Mary  Reynolds  —  Phe- 
nomena attending  the  Death  of  Bishop  Lee  —  Hlustrative 
Facts  —  Prevision  in  a  Dream  .         .         .         .         .    214-24:2 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

Cumulative  Testimony.  —  Spirit  Communications. 

Experience  with  A.  J.  Davis  —  Importance  of  Scientific  Proofs 

—  More  Unscientific  Objections  —  Purposes  of  Science  —  C. 
C.  Massey  on  Spiritualism — Spirit-Identity  —  Proofs  by  Re-  ■ 
productions  of  Physical  Defects  —  Mrs.  F.  O.  Hyzer's  Testi- 
mony —  Contradictions  in  Spirit-Communications  —  Mrs.  Ma- 
ria M.  King  —  Are  there  Evil  Spirits  ?  —  Grades  of  Conscious- 
ness —  William  Howitt  and  Daughter  —  A  Satisfactory  Test 

—  Plutarch  and  Porphyry  on  the  Phenomena  —  Anaxagoras  — 
The  Cui  bono  Question  —  Dr.  F.  B.  Hedge's  Statement  con- 
futed —  Identity  —  Grinnell,  the  Medium  —  Fechner's  The- 
ory—  Summing-up  —  Swedenborg  and  Wesley  —  Man  a  Tri- 
chotomy —  Dr.  Holland  —  Zollner  and  Crookes  on  the  Spirit- 
Hand  —  Dangers  —  Short-sighted  Antagonism  —  Crookes  on 
Radiant  Matter  —  Christ  on  Good  and  Evil  Spirits  —  Rev.  Jo- 
seph Cook —  Rev.  George  Putnam — Rev.  Dr.  Hall  —  Robert 
Chambers  —  Bishop  Clark  —  Pauline  Doctrine         .        .    243-269 


CHAPTER    IX. 

Discrete  Mental  States. 

Loc]s;e  on  Identity  —  Hartmann  —  Phenomena  of  Consciousness 
-^Illustrations  —  Dr.  Gregory  —  Dr.  O.  W.Holmes  —  Prof. 


12  CONTENTS. 


Clifford  —  Tiedemann's  Theory  —  Admiral  Beaufort  on 
Drowning  —  The  Mind  a  Multiplex  Unity  —  Reply  to  Lewes 

—  Case  of  Rev.  Mr.  Tennant  —  Facts  of  Idiocy  —  Agassiz 
and  Dr.  Brown- Sequard  —  Abererombie —  Swedenborg  on  the 
Inner  Memory  —  J.  Le  Conte  —  Mnudsley  —  No  Unconscious 
Cerebration  —  Jacobi,  Schelling,  Plotinus,  Lessing — Discrete 
States  —  The  Theory  applied  to  Spirits  —  Philosophy  of  the 
Unconscious  —  Hartmann — His  Unco-nscious  Deity  conscious 

—  Kirchman's  Analysis 270-294 


CHAPTER    X. 

The  Unseen  World  a  Reality. 

Undiscriminating  Antagonism  —  More  Danger  from  ignoring 
than  from  investigating —  Objections  of  David  Swing  —  Facts 
in  Confutation —  Biblical  Testimony  —  Swedenborgian  Objec- 
tions—  What  Rev.  Mr.  Mercer  has  to  say — Theism  of  Spir- 
itualism compared — Desire  for  Continuous  Life — Tempera- 
mental Differences  —  Spurious  Phenomena  as  related  to  Gen- 
uine —  Kant's  Prediction  of  Intercommunication  —  He  antici- 
pates our  Proofs  —  Shelley  a  Spiritualist  —  His  Letter  to 
Godwin  —  George  Eliot  —  Reply  to  Leslie  Stephen  .    295-321 


CHAPTER    XI. 

The  Sentiment  op  Immortality. 

Indifference  to  Life's  Continuance  —  Effects  of  a  False  Psy- 
chology—  The  Will  and  the  Temperament — Author's  Ac- 
quaintance with  Miss  Martineau —  Her  Idiosyncrasies  —  Wm. 
Humboldt  on  a  Future  Life  —  Bradlaugh  —  His  Discussion 
with  Burns  —  Bigotry  in  Secularism  —  Genesis  of  Belief  in 
Spirits  —  David  F.  Strauss  —  His  Dismay  at  Life's  Contin- 
uance —  The  Alarm  superfluous  —  Felix  Adler  on  Immor- 
tality —  Not  too  much,  but  too  little  —  The  "  Lust "  for  a  Fu- 
ture Life  — Fallacies  of  Adler  and  Emerson  —  Goethe's  Demo- 
niac Men  —  Buckle  —  Hortense  Bonaparte  —  Col.  R.  G.  In- 
gersol  on  his  Brother's  Death  —  Clifford      -     .        .        .    322-333 

CHAPTER    XII. 

The  Great  Generalization. 

Theism  in  the  Light  of  Spiritualism  —  The  Divine  Personality 
—  Prayer  —  Doctrine  of  Spheres  —  Psychometry  —  Illustra- 
tive Facts  —  Dangerous  Assumptions  —  Object-Souls  —  In- 
cautious Investigations  —  Concluding  Reflections    .        .    334-349 

APPENDIX 351 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  BASIS 


OI" 


SPIIIITUA.LISM: 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    BASIS. CLAIRVOYANCE   AND    DIRECT   WRITING. 

The  great  facts  of  clairvoyance,  and  direct,  independent 
writing,  have  been  so  widely  demonstrated,  and  are  so 
clearly  demonstrable,  under  proper  conditions,  that  no 
thorough,  sincere  investigator  now  disputes  their  occur- 
rence. The  conditions  under  which  the}^  have  taken  place 
have  been  such  as  to  rule  out  all  possibility  of  fraud.  New 
testimony  in  respect  to  them  is  offered  every  day,  from 
every  quarter  of  the  globe.  Representing,  as  they  do,  both 
the  physical  and  the  mental  sides  of  msinj  analogous  phe- 
nomena, they  may  be  fairly  selected  as  typical  facts,  now 
placed  bej^ond  dispute,  and  affording  a  basis  of  certainty 
for  a  psycho-phj^sical  science,  warranting  an  implicit  belief 
in  immortality. 

"It  is  a  question,  in  the  first  instance,  of  evidence ;  it 
then  follows,  to  explain,  so  far  as  we  can,  such  facts  as 
may  have  been  established."  So  wrote  the  eminent  Eng- 
lish civilian  and  prime  minister,  William  E.  Gladstone,  Octo- 
ber 16,  1878,  in  respect  to  these  phenomena. 

This  is  the  rational  view  of  the  subject.  There  are  certain 
specialists,  however,  in  sciences  quite  distinct  from  that  of 

13 


14  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

ps3-cIio-physical  phenomena,  who  assert  that  no  amount  of 
hnman  evidence  could  make  credible  to  them  facts  like 
clairvoj'fince  and  direct  writing.  Dr.  William  B.  Carpen- 
ter, of  England,  disregarding  the  testimony  of  his  brother, 
the  late  Philip  Pearsall  Carpenter,  an  eminent  naturalist, 
who  satisfied  himself  while  in  America  of  the  basic  truths 
of  Spiritualism,*  tells  us  that  our  common  sense  ought  to 
contradict  our  senses  when  these  testifj^  to  such  marvels. 
And  there  are  grave  doctors  of  medicine,  such  as  Richet, 
Hammond,  and  Beard,  who  declare  persistent!}',  through 
the  "  Popular  Science  Monthl}',"  one,  that  "  no  well-demon- 
strated fact  has  ever  permitted  us  to  conclude  that  such  a 
thing  as  double  sight,  or  clairvo3^ance,  exists  ;  "  the  other 
two,  that  there  never  was  a  case  of  clairvoyance  in  the 
world's  history.  When  men  start  yvith  the  declaration  that 
no  amount  of  human  testimon}^  shall  prove  to  them  the 
occurrence  of  a  natural  phenomenon,  the  general  conclu- 
sion will  be,  that  their  concurrence  in  regard  to  any  fact  is 
not  important  to  the  interests  of  science. 

Modern  Spiritualism  has  its  reason-for-being  in  well- 
established  facts,  not  only  of  the  past,  as  far  back  as  his- 
tory extends,  but  of  the  present.  For  these,  throughout 
the  ages,  but  one  explanation,  accounting  for  them  in  their 
aggregate,  has  yet  been  found :  it  is  that  which  -^refers 
them  to  high  preterhuman  or  supra-material  powers,  ex- 
erted either  unconsciously  and  abnormal!}^  by  a  so-called 
humcm  subject,  or  put  forth  by  invisible  beings,  manifest- 
ing intelligence  and  the  abihty  to  overcome  material  im- 
pediments, not  superable  b}^  any  physical  means  known  to 
science. 

The  word  spiritual  is  not  here  employed  as  a  sufficient 
solution  of  the  mystery,  or  as  intimating  a  distinction  be- 
tween tiling  and  nothing.     The  very  etymolog}^  of  the  word 

*  See  "  Memoirs  of  P.  P.  Carpenter,  by  his  brother,  Russell  Laut  Carpenter. 
London:  C.  Keagan  Paul,  1880." 


AN  INFERENCE    OF   SCIENCE.  15 

spirit  {spiritiis^  breath)  shows  that  something  occnpj'ing 
space,  though  attenuated  perhaps  to  invisibiUty,  is  intended. 
But  there  is  a  confusion  still  in  the  use  of  the  word  ;  for 
it  is  applied  by  different  thinkers  to  signify  not  only  the 
organic  spirit-form  and  its  constituents,  but  its  inner  es- 
sence,—  that  which  knows  and  thinks  and  is  the  synonj'me 
of  mind,  or  what  the  French  call  esprit. 

Aceording  to  Leibnitz,  the  essence  of  all  being,  whether 
mind  or  matter,  is  force.  The  whole  universe,  bodies  as 
well  as  minds,  is  made  up  of  monads,  or  ultimate  atoms, 
homogeneous  in  essence,  but  endowed  b}'  the  Creator  with 
certain  powers,  and  developed  in  degrees  infinitely  diverse. 
Thus  the  changes  which  the  monad  undergoes  are  onl}"  the 
gradual  and  successive  evolutions  of  its  own  internal  powers. 
Every  monad  having  both  body  and  soul,  but  being  in  itself 
a  simple,  indestructible  essence,  the  whole  material  world, 
even  in  its  inorganic  parts,  is  animated  throughout.  Thus 
matter  is  but  an  expression  of  force,  and  force  is  the  mode 
of  action  of  that  which  exists  and  is  alone  perfdstent.  Mate- 
rial forms  have  no  stabilit3^  An  organism  is  a  temporarj- 
form,  from  which  there  is  a  continual  efflux  of  particles. 
It  is  like  the  flame  of  a  lamp,  being  ceaselessly  fed  as  it 
ceaselessly  wastes  awa}-.  The  something  underl3'ing  all  phe- 
nomenal existence  is  persistent.  Matter,  as  we  know  it,  is 
incapable  of  acting  of  itself;  it  must  be  acted  upon;  but 
this  energy  underlj'ing  and  fashioning  all  forms  is  the  same 
to-day  as  yesterda}^  The  matter  passes  indifferent^  from 
mould-  to  mould,  retaining  no  character  of  individuality. 
Spirit  alone  can  act ;  matter  is  but  the  result  of  the  act. 

Thus  in  the  S3'stem  of  Leibnitz  the  substantial  does  not 
belong  to  organs,  but  to  their  original  elements.  Matter,  in 
the  vulgar  sense,  as  something  conceived  to  be  without 
mind,  does  not  exist.  There  is  no  death.  That  which  is 
called  death  is  only  the  soul  losing  a  part  of  the  monads 
which  compose  the  mechanism   of  its   earthly  hodj,   the 


16  imiORTAL   LIFE 

living  elements  of  which  go  back  to  a  condition  slniilar  to 
that  in  which  the^^  were  before  they  came  upon  the  theatre 
of  the  world.  Thus  the  immortalit}^  of  the  individual  is 
secure.  In  giving  the  monad  a  bod}',  Leibnitz  departs  from 
the  traditional  conception  of  corporealit}^  The  bod}^  of  the 
monad  is  not  bod}'  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word,  but  a 
force. 

Thus  nothing  really  dies ;  all  exists,  and  is  only  trans- 
formed. God  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living. 
He  is  the  Primitive  Monad,  the  Primitive  Substance  ;  all 
other  monads  are  its  fulgurations. 

Are  the  souls  of  the  lower  animals  immortal  ?  Yes  ;  they 
have  sensation  and  memor}^  Every  soul  is  a  monad,  for 
the  power  possessed  by  ever}^  soul  to  act  on  itself  proves  its 
substantiality,  and  all  substances  are  monads.  That  w^hich 
appears  to  us  as  a  body  is  in  realit}^  and  substantially  an 
aggregate  of  many  monads.  The  materiality  through  which 
they  express  themselves  being  but  a  transient  phenomenon, 
it  is  only  in  consequence  of  the  confusion  in  our  sensuous 
perceptions  that  this  pluralit}^  presents  itself  to  us  as  a  con- 
tinuous whole.  Plants  and  minerals  are,  as  it  were,  sleep- 
ing monads  with  unconscious  ideas  ;  in  plants  these  ideas 
are  formative  vital  forces. 

"  I  am  filled  with  astonishment,"  says  Leibnitz,  "  at  the 
nature  of  the  human  mind,  of  whose  powers  and  capabil- 
ities we  have  no  adequate  conception."  There  is  much  in 
Spiritualism  that  is  in  harmony  witii  his  views.  The  funda- 
mental idea  of  his  philosophical  s^'stem  is,  that  the  spiritual 
or  theologico-teleological  conception  of  the  world  should 
not  exclude  the  ph^'sico-mechanical  conception,  but  that  the 
two  should  be  united.  Thus  he  seems  to  have  anticipated 
the  attempt  of  the  pseudo-science,  represented  b}^  Haeckel, 
Iluxle}',  Clifford,  and  others,  to  find  in  matter  and  mechan- 
ism an  explanation  of  all  mental  phenomena.  He  argues 
that  particular  phenomena  can  and  must  be  mechanical!}' 


AN   INFERENCE    OF   SCIENCE.  17 

explained  ;  but  that  we  slionld  not,  at  the  same  time,  be 
unmindful  of  their  designs,  which  Providence  is  able  to 
accomplish  hy  the  very  use  of  mechanical  means;  that  the 
principles  of  ph3^sics  and  mechanics  themselves  depend 
on  the  direction  of  a  Supreme  Intelligence,  and  can  only 
be  explained  luhen  we  take  that  intelligence  into  consider- 
ation. 

This  is  one  of  the  strong  points  in  Leibnitz's  sj'stem. 
Reason  is  not  individual ;  it  is  universal  and  absolute,  and 
consequently  infallible.  There  are  sophists  who  dispute 
this,  and  who  sa}^  they  know  only  by  experience  that  a 
whole  is  greater  than  a  i^art ;  and  that,  in  a  world  of  which 
they  have  no  experience,  two  and  two  may  make  five.  Not 
all  are  free  who  scoff  at  fetters  ;  and  the  sophists  here  stul- 
tify their  own  proposition.  The  human  effort  to  reason  maj^, 
according  to  Leibnitz,  often  be  a  failure,  but  the  eternal 
principle  of  human  reason  must  be  nothing  less  than  divine 
reason.  Every  serious  conviction  must  cover  a  concealed 
faith  in  thought,  in  reason,  in  God.  Experience  cannot 
account 'for  innate  principles  ;  on  the  contrarj^,  innate  prin- 
ciples are  required  to  account  for  the  treasures  of  expe- 
rience. 

The  proved  phenomena,  indicative  of  the  operation  of  an 
inteUigent  force  outside  of  au}^  visible  organism,  have  been 
discredited,  on  various  pretences,  by  the  many  who  ha^'e 
not  had  leisure  or  inclination  to  carry  out  a  faithful  investi- 
gation. The  truly  marvellous  character  of  some  of  the 
phenomena  has  provoked  incredulity ;  the  apparent  frauds 
with  which  mediums,  supposed  to  be  genuine,  have  been 
frequently  charged,  have  excited  a  proper  distrust ;  the 
extraordinary  feats  sometimes  performed  b}^  individuals 
claiming  to  be  "exposers"  of  Spiritualism,  and  the  au- 
dacity of  their  assertions,  have  confounded  not  a  few  whose 
knowledge  of  the  subject  was  limited. 

The  idea  that  because  of  the  marvellousness  of  an  occur- 
2 


18  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

rence  the  laws  of  nature  have  been  violated  is,  when  ana- 
Ij'zed,  a  mere  superstition.  A  medium  is  lifted  to  the  ceil- 
ing, but  the  law  of  gravitation  is  no  more  violated  in  the 
act  than  it  is  when  we  jump  a  ditch.  Admit  the  theory  of 
a  spirit-force  not  subject  to  the  law,  and  the  fact  becomes 
credible.  The  frauds  charged  upon  approved  mediums,  like 
Florence  Cook,  Miss  Wood,  Mr.  Williams,  and  others,  raise 
questions,  the  answer  to  which  will  be  naturally  scouted  by 
those  not  intimately  acquainted  with  the  histor}^  of  the  phe- 
nomena. I  will  here  only  intimate  what  intelligent  investi- 
gators accept  as  the  solution  of  some,  at  least,  of  the  cases 
in  which  mediums,  previously  and  subsequent!}^  known  to 
be  genuine,  have  been  caught  in  what  seemed  x^rimd  facie 
frauds. 

The  influences  affecting  the  phenomena  are  extremely 
subtile  and  imperfectly  known.  But  I  have  repeatedly 
learned  this  from  practical  stud}^  and  experience :  The  un- 
uttered  thoughts,  the  will,  the  animus,  of  persons  promis- 
cuously present  at  a  sitting  for  phenomena,  have  an  effect 
upon  their  character  and  facility  of  production,  which  is 
none  the  less  potent  because  occult  and  incredible  to  the 
unprepared  mind.  I  have  known  a  medium  —  whose  hon- 
esty was  never  questioned,  and  in  whose  presence  the 
most  indubitable  phenomena  would  readily  occur  under 
the  severest  test  conditions  —  to  be  medially  paralj'zed  by 
the  presence  of  two  or  three  persons,  each  bringing  perhaps 
an  adverse  spiritual  environment,  all  vehemently  opposed 
to  the  success  of  the  experiment,  and  not  onlj^  intent  on 
the  detection  of  fraud,  but  earnestly  hoping  to  find  it.  Ad- 
mitting the  Spiritual  theorj^,  is  it  unreasonable  to  suppose 
that  such  persons  may  have  brought  influences  which,  if 
the  medium  had  not  intuitively  resisted  them,  would  have 
so  affected  her  as  to  confirm  their  own  unbelief  and  sus- 
picions of  trick  ?  That  this  has  been  often  done  w^here  the 
transfigured  body  of  the  medium  has  been  put  forward  as 


AN   INFERENCE    OF   SCIENCE.  19 

a  spirit-form,  is  more  than  probable.*  If  we  can  believe 
the  testimony  of  careful  investigators  both  in  Europe  and 
America,  the  trick  is  not  an  uncommon  one.  The  best  wa_y, 
however,  for  the  no\ice,  when  absolute  tests  are  wanted,  is 
to  trust  neither  spirit  nor  medium,  but  to  exact  conditions, 
if  he  can  get  them,  which  will  be  a  guaranty  against  mis- 
construction or  deception,  whether  from  the  supposed  spirit- 
world  or  this. 

That  genuine  mediums  may  sometimes  purposely  resort 
to  fraud  in  cases  where  the  supersensual  power  producing 
the  phenomena  is  not  readily  available,  is  highly  probable. 
There  is,  first,  the  temptation  of  exciting  an  exaggerated 
estimate  of  one's  ready  mediumship  ;  and  there  is,  sec- 
ondly, the  temptation  of  getting  money  which  might  be 
refused  in  the  event  of  failure.  Most  mediums  are  de- 
pendent on  the  exhibition  of  their  powers  for  a  support ; 
and  if  they  sometimes  supplement  real  phenomena  hy  de- 
vices of  their  own,  it  must  not  be  taken  alwaj^s  as  verif}- 
ing  the  maxim.  False  in  one  tiling,  false  in  all.-f  That  the 
cliarge  of  fraud  is  often  the  result  of  sheer  ignorance  on  the 
part  of  the  accuser,  has  been  repeatedly  proved.  He  has 
jumped  to  conclusions,  sincere  enough,  but  which  a  little 

*  Allan  Kardec  (the  nom  cle  plume  of  L.  D.  H.  Kivail)  relates,  in  his  "  Book 
on  Mediums,"  a  case  of  transfiguration,  or  change  of  aspect,  of  a  living  body. 
In  the  suburbs  of  St.  Etienne  (1S68-9),  a  young  girl  of  fifteen  had  the  faculty  of 
taking  on,  at  certain  times,  all  the  appearances  of  certain  persons  dead.  The 
phenomenon  was  renewed  hundreds  of  times.  On  several  occasions  she  took 
the  appearance  of  her  deceased  brother,  presenting  not  only  his  face,  but  the 
height,  size,  and  weight  of  his  body. 

t  An  English  Spiritualist,  well  versed  in  the  phenomena,  writes  (November, 
1878) :  "  I  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  a  sensitive  medium  may,  in  his  normal  state, 
be  impelled  to  trick  through  the  agency  of  his  surroundings.  He  is  more  to  be 
pitied  than  condemned.  I  have  sat  at  public  dark  seances  with  Williams,  Home, 
Eglinton,  Bastian,  and  Taylor;  and  I  have  also  seen  what  I  consider  real  mani- 
festations. Hundreds  of  others  have  seen  the  same  in  their  own  private  resi- 
dences, with  the  same  mediums,  and  under  circumstances  where  trick  was  im- 
possible. Such  being  the  case,  I  do  not  think  a  person  who  is  a  real  susceptible 
would  risk  his  liveliliood  knowingly  by  a  trick  palpable  and  easy  of  detection. 
The  higher  the  susceptibility,  the  more  room  is  there  for  trick.  Often,  if  the 
litting  is  too  long,  and  the  medium  exhausted,  low  influences  will  rush  in." 


20  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

more  knowledge  on  his  part  would  have  shown  to  be  doubt- 
ful or  fallacious. 

With  regard  to  the  so-called  "  exposers  "  of  Spiritualism, 
it  has  occasionally  happened  that  a  person  with  some  little 
medial  power,  not  being  able  to  get  a  living  by  the  display 
of  it,  or  becoming  disaffected  towards  Spiritualists  as  neg- 
lectful of  his  claims,  has  done  his  best  to  get  the  patron- 
age of  the  opponents  of  the  phenomena.  If  he  has  a  glib 
tongue,  a  plent}^  of  what  the  profane  call  cheeJc,  and  some 
little  skill  in  sleight-of-hand,  he  may  easilj^  persuade  the 
inexperienced  that  some  of  his  tricks  are  real  duplicates 
of  medial  phenomena.  In  regard  to  those  that  are  inex- 
plicable as  human  tricks,  he  ma}^,  with  the  aid  of  a  cabinet 
or  a  curtain,  do  things  in  which  the  co-operation  of  a  low 
order  of  spirits  ma}"  be  the  real  explanation.  In  such  cases 
he  always  has  an  excuse  ready  for  not  exhibiting  in  the 
light  to  an  audience  his  modus  operandi.  He  will  sa}^  that 
he  will  explain  it  at  some  future  time  ;  or  that  he  cannot 
afford  to  disclose  his  secret,  so  long  as  he  can  make  money 
by  it.  Several  of  these  impostors  have  succeeded  in  at- 
tracting large  audiences  and  getting  from  the  enemies  of 
Spiritualism  the  pecuniar}^  aid  which  the}'  could  not  get 
from  the  friends. 

Any  "  exposer"  who  professes  to  knoio  that  clairvoyance 
and  pneumatography  are  demonstrable  tricks,  may  be  safely 
set  down  as  either  self-deceived  or  wantonly  a  deceiver. 
II is  pretence  that  they  are  accomplished  by  sleight-of-hand 
is  a  mere  assumption,  and  he  generally  knows  it  to  be  un- 
true. Repeatedly  during  the  last  thirty-three  years  I  have' 
had  letters  of  caution  from  friendly  persons,  who  had  great 
confidence  in  their  own  sagacity,  informing  me  that  certain 
phenomena  I  had  proclaimed  as  genuine  had  been  proved 
by  some  itinerant  "exposer"  to  be  tricks.  In  every  in- 
stance the  "  exposer"  turned  out  to  be  either  an  impostor 
or  a  mere  "joker"  and  pretender;  and  up  to  this  time  no 


AN   INFERENCE    OF   SCIENCE.  21 

one  of  the  phenomena  generally  accredited  bj^  carefal  and 
experienced  investigators  all  over  the  world  has  been 
shaken  from  its  basis  of  actual  trjath. 

The  fact  that  many  persons  calUng  themselves  Spiritual- 
ists have  prejudiced  their  cause  b}'  seeking  medial  light  on 
business  or  domestic  matters,  properly  under  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  their  own  reason  and  sense  of  right,  has  given  rise 
to  a  great  amount  of  prejudice  among  those  who  have  not 
patiently  investigated  the  various  phenomena  for  them- 
selves. If  the  inquirer  really  wants  the  truth,  he  will  soon 
divest  himself  of  the  objections  which  the  eager  credulitj" 
of  novices,  or  the  frauds  of  mercenarj^  medium^s,  maj'  have 
provoked.  He  will  learn  that  there  are  genuine  phenom- 
ena, justifying  the  belief  in  a  force  preterhuman  and 
spiritual.  If  the  great  subject  has  been  abused,  it  is  the 
fault  of  those  who  have  kept  aloof  from  it. 

An  eminent  jurist,  occupying  one  of  the  highest  judicial 
positions  within  the  gift  of  the  people  of  his  State,  writes 
as  follows,  under  date  of  July  10,  1880  : 

"  M}^  first  attempts  at  investigation  ended  in  a  con- 
sciousness of  having  been  imposed  upon  bj'  fraud  ;  and  the 
dangerous  and  immoral  principles  avowed  by  those  seem- 
ing to  be  leaders  in  the  cause,  prevented  me  for  years  from 
having  anything  more  to  do  with  it.  But  within  the  last 
six  years,  the  cause  having  been  puriiied  of  some  of  its 
excrescences,  the  light  has  come  to  me  unsought.  Having 
been  accustomed  for  thirty  years  to  deal  with,  and  the  last 
twelve  years  to  weigh  evidence,  I  have  given  to  the  subject 
my  best  faculties,  always  under  the  dominion  of  an  inborn 
skeptical  nature,  and  have  become  thoroughly  satisfied  as 
to  the  two  great  elementary  facts,  viz.:  a  continued  ex- 
istence after  death,  and  that  those  v^^ho  have  gone  before 
may  communicate  with  persons  in  the  flesh.  In  being 
brought  to  that  conclusion,  I  have  yielded  only  to  that 
which,  being  scanned  as  evidence,  would  bear  the  most 
rigid  and  skeptical  scrutin}-  from  the  solitary  standpoint  of 
reason,  unswa^^ed  by  credulit}'  or  superstition." 


22  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

The  Spiritualist's  theory  is,  that  life  is  continuous ;  that 
the  word  immortal  must  be  taken  in  its  etymological  sense 
as  not-dying.  Continuitj'  of  being  must  then  be  a  natural 
effect  of  present  causes.  Thus  the  inquiry  into  the 
grounds  for  a  belief  in  the  existence  of  spiritual  organs 
and  powers  in  our  human  complex,  alreadj'  manifesting 
their  operation  in  the  earth-life,  and  forming  the  basis  of 
life  common  to  this  state  of  being  and  the  next,  becomes  a 
strictly  scientific  and  experimental  process,  dealing  with 
the  finer  and  more  recondite  parts  of  the  science  of  phys- 
iology, or  with  the  psycho-physiological  developments  of 
our  mixed  nature.  It  is  because  the  fact  of  a  future  life 
has  been  confounded  with  speculative  theological  or  reli- 
gious questions,  that  it  has  shared  their  reputation  as 
something  transcending  the  verification  of  science. 

There  are  pious  persons  who  declare  that  but  for  the 
authorit}^  of  the  Bible,  they  should  have  no  ground  for 
belief  either  in  God  or  in  a  future  life.  On  this  point, 
John  Page  Hopps  eloquentl}^  remarks  : 

"  What  can  at  present  be  said  to  people  whose  concep- 
tion of  a  future  life  is  the  rising  again  of  an  exterminated 
body? — or  who,  without  reflection,  and  as  by  a  coarse  anim.al 
instinct,  laugh  to  scorn  the  assertion  that  a  spirit  is  a 
greater  reality  than  a  body? — or  who  tell  us  they  must  give 
up  belief  in  immortalit}^  altogether,  if  the  texts  of  Scrip- 
ture they  rely  upon  are  in  a  book  that  is  not  infallible.  It 
does  not  matter  how  good,  or  devout,  or  otherwise  culti- 
vated these  people  are  ;  their  ideas  concerning  spirit  and 
spirit-hfe  show  that  in  relation  to  this  tremendous  subject 
the}'  are  only  children.  .  .  .  The  first  thing  to  do  is  to  take 
the  whole  subject  out  of  the  realm  of  myster}',  unreality, 
fantasy,  and  awe,  and  to  make  it  the  object  of  cool  thought, 
and,  if  possible,  of  scientific  experiment." 

And  this  is  precisel}^  what  the  intelligence  manifesting 
itself  th]-ough  these  so-called  spiritual  phenomena  seems  to 
be  trying  to  make  us  do. 


AN   INFERENCE    OF   SCIENCE.  23 

"  Spiritualism,"  sa3's  the  late  Dr.  Hallock,  "is  no  new 
problem  that  ought  to  have  taken  the  disciples  of  science 
by  surprise :  it  has  rapped  at  the  door  of  every  thinker 
throughout  the  ages  for  a  solution.  Wanting  it,  the  pop- 
ular thought,  misdirected  by  a  theology  that  was  stone- 
blind  and  remains  so,  has  invested  the  immortality  of  its 
own  faith  with  grave-dotlies^  and  converted  it  into  a  scare- 
crow, transforming  the  most  beautiful  and  sublime  process 
whereby  humanity'  is  glorified,  into  a  ghastl}^  skeleton, 
which  its  ignorance  has  named  death,  and  converted  it  into 
an  object  of  the  profoundest  horror.  It  was  for  science  to 
strip  these  rags  from  the  immortal  spirit.  Why  has  it  not 
been  done  ? " 

The  facts  which  have  been  conclusivel}^  substantiated  by 
the  somnambulic,  mesmeric,  and  spiritualistic  phenomensf, 
all  forming  a  related  group,  of  the  last  hundred  3'ears,  are 
regarded  as  accounting  for  and  corroborating  the  persistent 
belief  among  all  races  of  men,  in  all  ages,  that,  notwith- 
standing the  dissolution  of  his  physical  husk,  the  individual 
man,  with  all  the  faculties  pertaining  to  his  mental,  moral, 
and  emotional  nature,  survives,  and,  under  right  condi- 
tions, can  give  proofs  of  this  survival  to  those  whom  he 
left  behind  on  earth.  All  theories  of  the  genesis  of  the 
belief  in  immortality,  which  do  not  admit,  as  the  important 
original  factor,  a  Jcnoiuledge^  got  by  the  experimental 
method,  of  actual  phenomena,  objective  and  subjective, 
are  defective  and  delusive. 

"The  immortality  of  the  soul,"  says  Mr.  A.  M.  Fair- 
bairn,  "  though  a  primary,  can  hardly  be  considered  a  prim- 
itive religious  belief.  It  involves  conceptions  at  once  too 
abstract  and  positive  to  be  intelligible  to  primitive  man, 
and  what  he  cannot  conceive  he  cannot  believe." 

Spiritualism  contradicts  this  assumption.  A  liie  here- 
after was  conceivable  to  the  primitive  man  because  he  had 
objective  proofs  of  the  existence  of  his  departed  relatives 


24  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

and  friends  in  organisms  of  new  and  enlarged  power.  It 
required  no  metaphysical  reasoning  to  convince  him  of  this 
fact,  an}'  more  than  of  an}'  equall}'  m^'sterious  fact  in 
nature,  confirmed  by  the  evidence  of  his  senses  and  by  his 
limited  reasoning  powers. 

Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  in  the  Fortnightly  Eevieiv,  May  1, 
1870,  expresses  his  opinion  that  the  belief  in  a  double  per- 
sonality may  have  originated  among  savages  from  seeing 
their  moving  shadows,  or  the  reflection  of  their  faces  in  the 
water  ;  and  for  a  corroboration  of  this  fantastic  notion,  he 
refers  to  the  reluctance  which  certain  savages  have  evinced 
to  having  their  ]3ortraits  taken.  That  there  are  fools 
among  savages  as  well  as  among  civilized  races  is  not  to 
be  doubted  ;  but  it  is  an  arbitrary  assumption  to  suppose 
that  savages  generally  are  so  unobservant  of  cause  and 
effect  as  to  entertain  false  notions  in  regard  to  the  cause  of 
a  shadow,  whether  moving  or  stationary.  The  large  col- 
lection of  portraits  of  eminent  chiefs  of  Indian  tribes,  in 
possession  of  the  United  States  government,  is  a  proof 
that  their  representative  men  do  not  object  to  having  their 
likenesses  taken. 

All  such  far-fetched  attempts  at  explanation  proceed 
from  an  ignorance  of  the  fact  that  nearl}"  all  the  savage 
races  have  had  frequent  experience  in  objective  spiritual 
phenomena,  and  that  this  is  the  reason  why  so  few  of  them 
disbelieve  in  a  dual  personalit3\  The  phenomenon  of  pal- 
pable form-manifestations  by  supposed  spirits  is  well 
known  to  the  North  American  Indians.  Of  this  I  am 
assured  by  my  correspondent,  Mr.  Granville  T.  Sproat,  a 
government  agent  long  resident  among  the  Indians  of  Lake 
Superior,  and  who  has  testified  publicly  to  the  fact.  Intel- 
ligent Indians  were  full}-  persuaded  that  their  deceased 
friends  had  reappeared  palpabty,  and  at  times  joined  in 
their  dances. 

As  far  back  as  history  goes,  the  power  of  divination  and 


AN  INFERENCE   OF   SCIENCE.  25 

clairvoyance  has  been  regarded  by  faithful  investigators 
either  as  a  faculty  of  the  human  soul  developed  in  some  of 
its  states,  under  peculiar  conditions,  or  else  an  indication 
of  independent  spirit  action.  From  Pythagoras  to  Plato, 
from  Plato  to  Plutarch,  and  from  Plutarch  to  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  competent  witnesses  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
the  phenomena  have  been  admitted.  ''/S'^  divinatio  est  dii 
sunt"  (if  there  is  divination,  there  are  gods,  or  spirits),  is 
an  old  Latin  proverb.     The  deduction  is  legitimate. 

But  there  are  physical  phenomena  supplementing  and 
confirming  those  indicating  transcendent  faculties  of  per- 
ception. Consider  the  one  stupendous  fact  of  pneumatog- 
raphy,*  or  independent  writing.  I  hold  out  a  clean  slate, 
or  I  put  a  sheet  of  blank  paper  in  a  drawer,  which  I  lock, 
and  in  a  few  seconds  the  slate,  or  the  paper,  is  covered 
with  intelligible  writing.  Do  jou  say  it  is  a  phj^sical  im- 
possibilit}^  ?  That  ma}^  be.  But  as  it  takes  i^lace,  —  our 
senses  and  our  common  sense  testifjdng  to  the  fact,  —  then 
it  may  be  •  a  spiritual  or  psycho-physical  possibility ;  that 
is,  it  is  not  to  be  explained  b}^  an}"  purely  physical,  or  me- 
chanical, or  material  process  known  to  the  most  advanced 
science,  or  conceivable  as  independent  of  mind. 

"What  pretence  have  I,"  saj's  John  Wesley,  "to  deny 
well-attested  facts  because  I  cannot  comprehend  them?" 
One  of  the  capital  objections  is  this:  "  Did  you  ever  see 
an  apparition  yourself?"  "No;  nor  did  I  ever  see  a 
murder,  yet  I  believe  there  is  such  a  thing."  Wesley  lived 
to  see  what  he  believed  to  be  an  apparition,  on  three 
occasions. 

If  the  fact  of  independent  writing  be  disputed,  those 
who  bear  testimony  to  it  must  be  regarded  either  as  mcnda- 


*  I  use  the  word  as  Kardec  does,  to  designate  writing'  supposed  to  be  exe- 
cuted fly  spiritual  power.  Tlie  term  psychograpTiy  is  used  to  designate  both 
this  and  writing  by  the  hands  of  mediums  under  the  supposed  influence  of 
Bome  spirit. 


26  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

cions  or  under  an  hallucination.  But  when  the  whole  char- 
acter and  extent  of  the  testimony  to  the  momentous  fact 
are  fairly  estimated,  the  attempt  to  get  rid  of  it  b}^  charging 
falsehood  or  imbecilitj^  on  the  tens  of  thousands  of  wit- 
nesses, will  be  regarded  by  judicial  minds  as  a  presump- 
tuous evasion,  in  direct  conflict  with  the  principles  of 
experimental  science. 

"  Science,'*  says  John  Stuart  Mill,  "  is  a  collection  of 
truths.  The  language  of  science  is,  This  is,  or.  This  is 
not ;  This  does,  or  does  not  happen.  Science  takes  cogni- 
zance of  a  phenomenon,  and  endeavors  to  discover  its  law." 

We  lay  stress  on  this  proved  fact  of  pneumatography, 
for  it  is  one  in  which  there  has  been,  and  need  be,  no 
experimental  flaw.  If  it  is  rejected,  it  must,  I  repeat,  be 
rejected  on  principles  inconsistent  with  the  experimental 
methods  of  science  itself.  It  is  so  conclusive  as  a  proof  in 
broad  daylight  of  mind  independent  of  a  visible  organ- 
ism,—  of  the  action  of  an  intelligent  force  outside  of  the 
human  body,  and  often  operating  twenty  feet  or  more  dis- 
tant from  it,  under  conditions  the  most  simple  and  satisfac- 
tory,—  and  it  is  so  easily  verifiable,  —  that  nothing  but 
that  extreme  incredulity,  which  is  the  equivalent  of  a  fat- 
uous credulity,  can  cause  a  person  to  doubt  the  occurrence 
of  the  phenomenon  after  once  witnessing  it,  or,  indeed, 
after  fairly  estimating  the  testimony  in  its  behalf. 

"  One  good  experiment,"  says  Sir  Humphrey  Davy,  "  is 
of  more  value  than  the  ingenuity  of  a  brain  like  Newton's." 
Let  me  briefly  relate  what  I  have  elsewhere  recorded  in 
detail,  namely,  my  own  personal  experience.  I  give  it  not 
as  being  conclusive,  absolutely  by  itself,  but  as  conclusive 
relatively  to  the  same  experience  got  by  thousands  of  com- 
petent observers,  and  by  many  eminent  men  of  science  in 
all  parts  of  the  world.  1  took  an  entirely  new,  unused 
slate,  which  I  had  bought  twenty  minutes  before,  to  the 
medium,  Charles  E.  Watkins,  in  Boston,  Sept.   18,  1877. 


AN  INFERENCE   OP  SCIENCE.  27 

The  slate  was  what  is  called  a  book-slate,  and  was  enclosed 
in  stiff  pasteboard  covers.  I  went  well  aware  of  all  the 
reports  unfavorable  to  mediums  in  general  and  to  this  one 
in  particular. 

After  manifesting  his  clairvoyance  by  telling  me  what 
was  written  on  some  dozen  slips  of  paper,  which  I  had 
rolled  tightly  into  pellets  —  intelligence  which  he  could  not 
have  got  from  my  mind,  inasmuch  as  I  could  not  distin- 
guish one  pellet  from  another,  —  he  permitted  me  to  take 
my  own  slate  and  hold  it  out  away  from  him  in  my  left 
hand.  He  had  dropped  on  the  upper  surface  of  the  book- 
slate  a  piece  of  slate-pencil  not  so  large  as  half  of  a  grain 
of  rice.  He  sat  three  feet  from  me,  and  did  not  once 
touch  the  slate.  Although  there  had  been  no  opportunity 
of  his  even  making  a  mark  on  it  without  my  knowledge,  I 
satisfied  myself  once  more,  before  I  held  it  out,  that  it  was 
entirely  clean.  Instantly  there  was  a  sound  as  of  the 
grating  of  a  pencil,  and  in  less  than  ten  seconds  there  was 
a  rap,  apparently  on  the  slate.  I  uncovered  it,  and  there 
was  the  name  of  a  departed  friend,  Anna  Cora  Mowatt. 
This  experiment  I  repeated  several  times  with  the  same 
success,  getting  names  and  messages  from  friends,  which 
would  have  been  none  the  less  extraordinary  if  the  medium 
had  known  them  and  their  names,  which  he  unquestionably 
did  not. 

In  one  instance,  at  the  same  sitting,  I  got  a  message  of 
fifty-two  words,  written  with  preterhuman  celerity.  The 
writing  was  neat  and  legible.  I  have  it  still  unefi'aced. 
The  medium  and  mj'-self  were  the  only  persons  present, 
and  the  noonday  sun  streamed  into  the  room.  There  was 
no  escape  from  the  knowledge  that  a  great  phenomenon, 
involving  both  clairvo3'ance  and  intelligent  motion,  without 
manual,  mechanical,  or  chemical  appUance,  had  taken 
place  in  my  presence.  If  true  —  if  I  was  not  under  an  hal- 
lucination —  then  no  more  books  need  be  written  to  prove 


28  IMMORTAL  LIFE 

that  the  materialism,  which  would  confine  all  operations  of 
mind  to  a  material  brain  —  material  in  the  human  sense  of 
the  word  —  is  an  error.  If  I  must  reject  or  question  the 
testimon}^  which  my  senses  and  mj^  common  sense  gave  me 
on  this  occasion,  then  must  I  regard  mj'self  as  disqualified 
from  testif^dng  to  any  visible  occurrence  whatever.  No 
hj'pothesis  of  jugglery  was  within  the  reach  of  reason. 
There  was  no  confederate  (in  the  flesh,  at  least) ,  and  the 
conditions  could  not  have  been  more  rigorousty  exclusive 
of  possible  fraud.  Nothing  depended  on  the  moral  charac- 
ter of  the  medium ;  and  if  he  had  been  caught  cheating  the 
next  day,  it  would  not  have  afl'ected  my  convictions,  unless 
the  modus  operandi  was  so  explained  that  I  could  see,  that 
with  the  requisite  practice  and  skill,  any  one  could  produce 
the  same  manifestation. 

The  phenomenon  was  not  new  to  me.  Many  j^ears  be- 
fore I  had  got  proofs  of  independent  writing  on  paper  in 
the  presence  of  Colchester,  an  English  medium,  who  died 
young.  But  never  had  I  before,  while  holding  my  own 
new,  clean  slate,  untouched  b}^  any  other  person,  got  audi- 
ble writing  unequivocally  independent  of  any  conceivable 
process,  phj'sical,  chemical,  or  mechanical.  If  there  was 
not  corroborative  evidence  of  the  most  ample  kind  from 
thousands  of  other  witnesses,  some  of  high  scientific  repute, 
I  might  still  feel  a  hesitancy  in  narrating  my  own  experi- 
ence :  the  transcendent  nature  of  the  fact  might  awe  me 
into  silence.  But  such  is  its  authentication  now,  that  while 
skepticism  is  always  excusable,  the  outright  denial  of  the 
phenomenon  can  proceed  only  from  the  ignorant  or  the 
reckless. 

A  recent  Scotch  writer  charges  against  Spiritualists  "  an 
incapacity  to  give  due  value  to  the  enormously  important 
evidence  of  general  experience."  He  writes  :  "A  man  duly 
sensible  of  the  enormous  improbability  that  he  is  a  witness 
of  a  reversal  of  otherwise  invariable  sequences,  or  of  the 


AN   INFERENCE  OF  SCIENCE.  .29 

intrusion  of  a  force  which  does  not  figure  in  universal  ex 
perience,  can  hardly,  whatever  be  his  failings,  become  the 
devoted  adherent  and  expositor  of  a  delusion  like  Spirit- 
ualism." 

Superficially  scanned  these  seem  like  words  of  wisdom ; 
but  they  are  in  truth  as  destitute  of  reason  as  the  in- 
crcdulit}^  of  the  tropical  chief  who  would  not  believe  in  the 
hardening  of  water  because  he  had  never  seen  ice.  He 
fully  appreciated  what  our  critic  calls  ' '  the  enormous  im- 
probability "  of  there  being  a  force  which  did  not  figure  in 
the  experience  of  himself  and  his  tribe. 

The  whole  adverse  argument  may  be  summed  up  thus : 
"The  negative  testimony  of  the  many  ought  to  outweigh 
the  positive  testimony  of  the  few."  The  negative  testi- 
mony of  a  thousand  persons,  who  have  never  witnessed  a 
case  of  somnambulism,  or  the  fall  of  a  meteor,  ought  to 
outweigh  the  testimony  in  regard  to  them  of  ten  careful 
observers  !  Where  would  science  be  if  this  principle  were 
carried  out  generall}-  ? 

Those  persons  who  scout  a  fact  of  nature  because  it  is 
not  known  and  accepted  by  the  majority,  are  quite  as  nar- 
row and  irrational  as  the  tropical  chief  in  their  incredulity. 
"How  do  we  know,"  asks  the  late  Professor  De  Morgan, 
"  that  sequences  are  to  be  always  invariable  ;  that  what  has 
been  must  always  be?"  But  the  argument  need  not  be 
pressed.  The  Spiritualist  is  not  called  on  to  believe  in  the 
reversal  of  invariable  sequences.  Our  phenomena  have 
been  known  to  the  intelhgent  few,  under  whose  observation 
they  happened  to  fall,  and  believed  in  by  the  many,  in  all 
ages  of  the  world,  except,  perhaps,  our  own. 

In  a  posthumous  work  on  Psychology  by  George  Henry 
Lewes,  he  remarks  :  "A  deep  longing  for  some  direct  proof 
of  existence  after  death  has  made  hundreds  of  people  accept 
the  grossest  impostures  of  Spiritualism  ;  impostures  which 
contradicted  the  most  massive  experiences  of  the  race,  and 


80  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

which  had  Dothing  to  support  them  save  this  emotional 
credulit}"  acting  where  direct  knowledge  was  wholly"  absent." 

That  there  have  been  "gross  impostures,"  which  have 
deceived  even  experienced  investigators,  there  can  be  no 
doubt.  The  man  who  has  counterfeit  mone}^  pahned  off 
upon  liim  is  not  he  who  disbeheves  in  mone}^,  and  refuses 
to  take  it,  good  or  bad,  but  he  who  has  reason  to  know  that 
most  of  the  money  in  use  is  genuine.  But  it  is  directly 
contrar}^  to  the  truth  to  sa}^  that  "  the  most  massive  experi- 
ences of  the  race  "  have  been  opposed  to  a  belief  in  spirit- 
ual manifestations.  On  the  contrary,  many  of  the  greatest 
men  that  have  dignified  the  race  have  been  full  believers 
in  them.  The  fact  is  so  notorious  that  I  will  not  at  present 
occup}'  space  in  recording  some  of  their  names. 

It  is  onlj^  within  the  last  century  and  a  half,  that  skep- 
ticism and  materialism  have  been  so  current  as  to  give  even 
a  color  of  truth  to  the  remark  of  Mr.  Lewes.  So  far  is  it 
from  being  true  that  "  emotional  credulity"  can  be  credited 
with  the  conversions,  the  fact  is  that  a  great  ^Droportion  of 
converts  have  been  from  a  class  so  fixed  in  their  incre- 
dulity as  to  things  super-sensual,  that  onh^  objective  proofs 
of  the  most  decisive  kind  could  attract  their  serious  attention. 

According  to  Mr.  Lewes's  own  confessions,  he  vacillated 
greatty  in  his  psychological  views.  Perhaps,  had  his  earth- 
life  been  protracted  a  little  longer,  his  conclusions  in  regard 
to  our  phenomena, — bitterly  opposed  as  he  was  to  a 
system,  which,  if  true,  made  rubbish  of  many  of  his  ingen- 
ious speculations,  —  might  have  changed. 

Let  me  resume  the  subject  of  m^^  own  personal  experiences 
in  the  psycho-physical  phenomena,  which,  beginning  for  me 
as  far  back  as  the  3'ear  1835,  have  been  multiplied  up  to 
the  time  of  my  present  writing.  On  the  evening  of  Satur- 
da}',  the  13th  of  March,  1880,  the  Rev.  Joseph  Cook  came 
to  m}^  house,  bringing  with  him  four  of  his  friends,  two 
gentlemen  and  two  ladies,   one  his   wife.      Watkins  had 


AN   INFERENCE   OF   SCIENCE.  81 

promised  to  come  at  Mr.  Cook's  request  (not  mine),  and 
he  was  present  before  Mr.  Cook  and  his  partj^  arrived.  He 
brought  with  him  Mr.  Henry  G.  White,  a  gentleman  whose 
parents  were  well  known  to  me,  and  who  had  only  the  week 
before  become  acquainted  with  Mr..  Watkins,  and  tested  the 
phenomena  in  his  presence.  Finding  him  deepl}'  interested, 
the  medium  had  brought  him,  and  Mr.  White  had  stopped 
at  a  shop  and  purchased  five  or  six  small  slates. 

I  am  thus  particular  in  stating  the  exact  relations  of  Mr. 
White  to  the  experiments,  because  the  onlj'  important 
points  which  struck  Mr.  Cook  as  "unsatisfactory,"  had 
reference  to  his  presence  and  the  fact  that  Jiis  slates  were 
used,  and  not  those  which  Mr.  Cook  had  brought,  and 
which  were  encased  in  thick  wooden  covers.  I  can  vouch 
for  Mr.  White  that  he  was  reallj^  no  more  "the  medium's 
friend"  than  Mr.  Cook  himself,  and  was,  like  the  rest  of  us, 
merel}^  an  earnest  seeker  after  the  truth,  and  as  much  inter- 
ested as  any  of  us  could  be  in  detecting  an3'thing  like  fraud. 

It  had  been  publicly  announced  that  Mr.  Cook  would,  in 
his  lecture  the  following  Monda}^,  give  the  result  of  his  ex- 
periments at  my  house.  The  Old  South  Church  in  Boston 
was  crowded  to  repletion  on  the  occasion.  The  seance  had 
taken  place  in  m}'  library,  nine  persons,  including  m3'self 
and  the  medium,  being  present.  Three  of  the  party  v»'ere 
ladies.  Here  are  the  public  statements  of  Mr.  Cook,  coa- 
tained  in  his  lecture  of  March  loth,  1880. 

The  following  were  the  satisfactory  points : 

1.  Five  strong  gas  jets,  four  in  a  chandelier  over  the 
table  and  one  in  a  central  position  on  the  table,  were  burn- 
ing all  the  while  in  the  library  where  the  experiments  took 
place. 

2.  At  no  time  were  the  slates  on  which  the  abnormal 
writing  'was  produced  taken  from  the  sight  of  any  one  of 
the  nine  persons  who  watched  them.  The  writing  was  not 
done,  as  was  Slade's  in  London  and  at  Leipsic,  on  slates 
held  under  a  table. 


32  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

3.  The  utmost  care  was  taken  by  all  the  observers  to  see 
that  the  slates  were  perfectly  clean  just  before  they  were 
closed. 

4.  Durmg  the  first  experhnent.  nine  persons  clasped  each 
one  hand  or  two,  over  and  under  the  two  slates.  The 
psychic's  hands  were  among  the  others,  and  he  certainl}'' 
did  not  remove  his  hands  from  this  position  while  the  sound 
of  the  writing  was  heard. 

5.  Each  observer  had  written  on  a  scrap  of  paper  given 
him  by  the  ps3'chic  the  name  of  a  deceased  friend  and  a 
question  addressed  to  the  person  named.  All  the  scraps 
were  folded  into  tight,  small  j^ellets  and.  placed  in  a  group 
on  the  table  and  then  mixed,  until  T  could  not  tell  my 
pellets  from  others  in  the  collection.  Half  a  dozen  of  the 
names  were  correctly  given  by  the  psychic,  while  the  pellets 
remained  unopened. 

No  opinion  is  ventured  here  as  to  the  method  by  which  he 
obtained  this  knowledge.  One  of  the  two  pellets  wliich  I 
had  thrown  into  the  group  contained  the  following  words  : . 
''Warner  Cook.  In  what  year  was  my  father  born?"  I 
put  in  one  question  which  could  be  answered  by  any  one 
who  could  read  my  thoughts.  I  put  in  another  which 
could  not  be  thus  answered,  for  I  did  not  know  the  answer 
to  it. 

The  psychic,  who  certainly  had  not  seen  me  fold  or  write 
the  pellet,  for  he  was  not  in  the  room  at  the  time,  told  me 
correctly  the  name  it  contained,  which  was  that  of  my 
grandfather.  He  told  also  correctlj^  the  name  in  the  second 
pellet.  I  thought  this  perhaps  merel}'  a  case  of  mind- 
reading.  The  psychic  wrote  on  a  slate,  "I  wish  yon  to 
know  that  I  can  come.  I  do  so  long  to  reach  3^ou.  W.  C." 
I  judged  that  this  perhaps  was  fraud,  although  I  was  told 
it  came  from  a  spirit. 

The  psychic,  however,  began  to  suffer,  or  assume  sin- 
gular contortions,  and  said  the}'  were  the  results  of  the 
efforts  of  a  spirit  to  communicate  through  him.  I  \evy  much 
doubted  whether  he  was  not  acting  a  part,  and  watched 
him,  as  all  the  rest  of  the  company  did,  ver}^  closel}'  in  every 
one  of  his  motions.  He  placed  two  slates  on  a  table  before 
him,  and  a  hand,  palm  downward,  on  each  slate. 

He  seemed  to  be  making  a  strong  effort  of  will,  and  said 
he  could  not  tell  whether  the  experiment  woul(^  succeed. 


AN  INFERENCE   OF  SCIENCE.  83 

Biting  a  small  fragment,  not  much  larger  than  four  or  five 
times  the  size  of  the  head  of  a  pin,  from  the  top  of  a  slate 
pencil,  he  placed  the  bit  on  one  of  the  slates,  and  called  on 
us  all  to  see  that  both  surfaces  were  clean.  This  we  did  in 
the  fall  light  of  five  gas  burners,  to  our  perfect  satisfaction. 
The  ps3^chic  then  shut  the  slates  with  the  fragment  between 
them,  and  required  us  all  to  grasp  the  edges  of  the  slates. 
He  drew  my  hands  into  a  position  near  his,  and  made 
several  strokes  over  the  back  of  one  of  them.  Meanwhile, 
his  face  showed  strong  efl'orts  of  will ;  his  whole  counte- 
nance energized  ;  he  seemed  to  be  in  an  agony  of  volition  ; 
his  features  changed  their  expression  to  one  of  great  vigor 
and  determination  :  and  j^et,  while  this  look  was  kept  up  he 
was  shedding  tears.  It  was  in  this  mood  of  the  psj'chic 
that  the  audible  writing  began  and  continued. 

6.  While  a  dozen  hands  in  full  light  were  tightly  clasped 
about  the  slates,  we  all  distinctty  heard  the  peculiar  grating 
sound  of  a  slate  pencil  moving  between  them.  I  said 
"Hist!"  once  or  twice;  and,  in  a  nearly  perfect  silence, 
we  every  one  of  us  heard  writing  going  on  between  the 
surfaces.  Afterward  we  saw  the  fragment  of  pencil  which 
was  used,  and  noticed  that  it  was  worn  by  the  friction  of 
writing. 

7.  The  writing  found  on  one  of  the  slates  when  they  were 
opened  was  in  response  to  my  question,  and  was  as  follows  : 
"I  think  in  1812,  but  am  not  sure.     Warner  Cook." 

This  date  was  correct.  The  doubt  expressed  in  the  reply 
did  not  exist  in  m}^  own  thoughts,  for  I  knew  what  the 
date  was.  During  the  writing  I  was  not  thinking  of  the 
date,  however,  but  very  cautiously  watching  the  psychic  to 
detect  fraud. 

8.  In  a  second  experiment  the  psychic  closed  the  slates 
in  our  sight,  after  they  had  been  washed  with  a  wet  sponge 
which  I  had  myself  procured  from  one  of  Mr.  Sargent's 
chambers,  and  had  also  been  heavily  rubbed  by  my  hand- 
kerchief in  presence  of  us  all,  as  they  lay  on  the  table. 
We  were  determined  that  no  invisible  writing  should  remain 
on  the  slates  if  any  had  been  put  there  by  sleight  of  hand, 
or  previously  to  the  gathering  of  the  company.  After  they 
had  been  shut  upon  the  pencil,  the  ps3'chic,  at  m}^  request, 
placed  on  them  two  strong  brass  clamps,  one  at  each  end. 
[Mr.  Cook  here  exhibited  to  the  audience  the  clamps,  hold- 

3 


84  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

ing  together  the  slates  in  question.]  Thus  arranged,  the 
slates  were  placed  by  him  in  m}^  right  hand,  which  I  ex- 
tended at  arm's  length  over  the  back  of  my  chair  into  the 
open  space  of  the  room,  while  I  left  my  other  hand  on  the 
table.  The  psj'chic,  twice  or  three  times,  turned  the 
clamped  slates  over  in  my  hand,  and  then  returned  his 
hands  to  the  table,  where,  with  the  rest  of  the  hands  of  the 
compan}',  they  were  kept  constant^  in  sight.  In  this  posi- 
tion I  held  the  slates  a  few  seconds,  and  watched  both 
them  and  the  ps3'chic.  He  appeared  to  be  making  no  par- 
ticular effort  of  will.  When  the  slates  were  opened,  these 
words  were  found  written  on  one  of  their  surfaces,  in  a 
feminine  hand:  "God  bless  j'ou  all.  I  am  here.  Your 
loving  friend,  Fanny  Conant."  I  had  hever  heard  of  this 
person,  but  the  name  was  recognized  b}'  several  in  the 
company  as  that  of  a  psjxhic  now  deceased,  and  lately  well 
known  in  Boston. 

9.  One  of  the  observers  who  assisted  in  the  experiments 
at  ni}'  request  was  my  famil}^  physician.  Dr.  F.  E.  Bundy, 
of  Boston,  a  graduate  of  the  Harvard  Medical  School  —  a 
man  of  great  coolness  and  penetration  of  judgment,  and  by 
no  means  inclined  to  adopt  any  spiritualistic  theory. 
Another  of  the  observers  was  Mr.  Epes  Sargent.*  ....  Of 
the  nine  observers,  a  majority  were  not  onh*  not  Spirit- 
ualists, but  thoroughly  prejudiced  against  the  claims  made 
in  behalf  of  the  ps3xhic  who  led  the  experiments.  Written 
notes  of  the  facts,  as  they  occurred,  were  taken  without  an 
instant's  delay  by  Dr.  Bund}^  and  mj^self.    . 

10.  Among  the  names  correctl}"  read  in  the  closed  pellets 
was  that  of  an  officer  in  the  regular  arm}",  shot  dead  in  one 
of  the  preliminary  skirmishes  of  the  battle  of  the  Wilder- 
ness. The  editor  present  knew  the  officer  well,  and  the 
circumstances  of  his  death.  The  instant  the  psj'chic  pro- 
nounced the  officer's  name,  he  fell  backward  with  a  quick, 
sudden  motion,  like  that  of  one  shot  through  the  heart. 
After  a  few  seconds  he  wrote  the  word  ' '  Shot,"  in  large 
letters,  on  the  slate. 

1 1 .  The  hands  of  the  company  were  so  placed  on  the 
slates  in  the  first  experiment,  that  the  theor}^  of  fraud  by 
the  use  of  a  magnetic  pencil  is  inapplicable  to  the  facts. 
One  of  the  observers  held  an  open  hand  tightl}'  against  the 

*  The  omission  here  is  merely  a  personal  compliment. 


AN   INFERENCE    OF   SCIENCE.  35 

bottom,  and  another  on  the  top  of  the  slates,  which  were 
perhaps  six  or  ten  inches  above  the  surface  of  the  table  as 
it  was  clasped  bj  the  hands.  Any  magnet  concealed  in 
the  sleeves  of  the  psychic  could  not  have  been  so  used  as 
to  move  the  pencil. 

12.  At  the  close  of  the  experiments,  the  company  unani- 
mously indorsed  a  paper  drawn  up  on  the  spot,  and  were 
agreed  that  the  theory  of  fraud  would  not  explain  the  facts. 
While  they  differed  in  opinion  as  to  whether  the  slate  pencil 
was  moved  b}^  the  will  of  the  psychic,  or  by  that  of  a  spirit 
or  spirits  acting  through  him,  the  observers  could  not  ex- 
plain the  writing  except  by  the  movement  of  matter  with- 
out contact. 

Report  of  the  Observers  of  the  Sargent  Experiment  in 
Psychography  in  Boston^  March  13,  1880. 

At  the  house  of  Epes  Sargent,  on  the  evening  of  Saturda}-, 
March  13,  the  undersigned  saw  two  clean  slates  placed  face 
to  face,  with  a  bit  of  slate  pencil  between  them.  We  all 
held  our  hands  clasped  around  the  edges  of  the  two  slates. 
The  hands  of  Mr.  Watkins,  the  psychic,  also  clasped  the 
slates.  In  this  jjosition  we  all  distinctly  heard  the  pencil 
moving,  and  on  opening  the  slates  found  an  intelligent 
message  in  a  strong  masculine  hand,  in  answer  to  a  ques- 
tion asked  by  one  of  the  company. 

Afterwards,  two  slates  were  clamped  together  with  strong 
brass  fixtures,  and  held  at  arm's  length  b}"  Mr.  Cook,  while 
the  rest  of  the  company  and  the  ps^'chic  had  their  hands  in 
full  view  on  the  table.  After  a  moment  of  waiting,  the 
slates  were  opened,  and  a  message  in  a  feminine  hand  was 
found  on  one  of  the  inner  surfaces.  There  were  five  lighted 
gas  burners  in  the  room  at  the  time. 

We  cannot  apply  to  these  facts  any  theory  of  fraud,  and 
we  do  not  see  how  the  writing  can  be  explained  unless 
matter,  in  the  slate  pencil,  was  moved  without  contact. 
F.  E.  BuNDY,  M.  D.      Epes  Sargent.      John  C.  Kinney. 
Henry  G.  White.      Joseph  Cook. 

Boston,  March  13,  1880. 

Notice  now  the  unsatisfactory  points  in  these  experiments  : 
1.    My  attention  was  several  times  diverted  from  watch- 
ing the  psychic  by  his  requiring  me  to  put  my  pencil  on  the 
pellets  and  pass  it  slowly  from  one  to  another  of  them. 


36  IMMOETAL   LIFE 

It  ought  to  be  stated  that  he  required  Mr.  Sargent  to  do 
the  same,  and  if  it  had  been  his  object  to  divert  the  atten- 
tion of  those  most  opposed  to  admitting  his  claims,  he 
would  have  done  better  to  have  selected  Dr.  Bundy  instead 
of  Mr.  Sargent,  as  another  gun  to  spike.  Dr.  Bundy's 
attention  was  not  diverted  for  an  instant,  nor  was  mine  at 
any  instant  that  seemed  to  me  important. 

2.  Two  or  three  times  the  ps^xhic  and  a  friend  whom 
he  had  brought  to  the  room,*  left  the  company  and  went 
into  the  hall  together,  and  I  did  not  know  what  they  con- 
ferred about.  It  is  supposed  that  they  left  in  order  that 
the  friend  might  not  be  regarded  as  a  confederate. 

3.  The  psychic  was  easily  offended  by  any  test  condi- 
tions suggested  b}^  the  company,  although  he  finallj^  adopted 
the  brass  clamps  which  he  at  first  refused  to  use. 

4.  The  psychic's  friend  brought  to  the  room  the  slates 
which  were  used,  and  mj  slates  were  not  employed  at  all 
in  the  experiments. 

The  alleged  objection  to  the  use  of  mj'  slates  was  that 
they  had  wood  on  their  backs,  and  were  poor  conductors 
of  electrical  influences.  Although  clamps  on  the  slates  are 
no  greater  guard  than  one's  hands  maj'  be,  still  they  amount 
to  something  in  stating  the  case  to  the  public.  If  I  had 
suddenlj'  fallen  into  a  trance,  or  been  mesmerized,  while 
holding  the  slates,  the  clamps  would  have  held  their  place, 
and  some  one  in  the  companj^  might  not  have  been  in  a 
trance,  and  would  have  known  what  happened. 

On  the  whole,  the  unsatisfactory  points  did  not  appear 
to  outweigh  the  satisfactor}^  ones.  In  spite  of  the  former, 
the  observers  agree  in  professing  inabilit}^  to  explain  the 
writing  unless  there  was  here  motion  without  contact. 

In  these  experiments,  as  I  beg  3'ou  to  notice,  there  is 
nothing  to  decide  whether  the  force  which  moved  the  pen- 
cil was  exercised  by  the  will  of  the  ps^xhic,  or  by  a  spirit, 
or  b}'  both. 

We  do  not  presume  to  say  how  the  motion  was  caused, 
but  only  that  we  do  not  see  how  the  writing  can  be  ex- 
plained unless  matter  in  the  slate  pencil  was  moved  without 
contact. 

Of  course  the  latter  fact,  if  established,  and  even  in  the 

*This  refers  to  Mr.  White,  whose  relations  to  the  experiments  I  have  ah-eady 
explained. 


AN   INFERENCE    OF   SCIENCE.  37 

absence  of  knowledge  as  to  whether  the  force  proceeds  from 
the  psjxhic  or  from  spirits,  overturns  utterly  the  mechanical 
theory  of  matter,  explodes  all  materialistic  hypotheses,  and 
la3'S  the  basis  for  transcendental  ph3'sics,  or  a  new  world  in 
philosophy. 

Here  is  the  ver}^  freshest  joamphlet  from  German}'  on 
ps3'chical  phenomena.  It  is  written  by  Leeser,  a  medical 
candidate  at  Leipzig  Universit}^,  and  defends  unflinchingly 
the  theory  that  the  psychic  force  explains  all  these  phe- 
nomena, and  is  under  the  control  of  man  exclusively.  I 
came  out  of  Mr.  Sargent's  library  fully  couAdnced  that  the 
stress  of  debate  is  between  that  theory  and  the  theory 
adopted  b}^  Zcillner  and  Crookes,  that  the  force  is  under  the 
control  of  both  men  and  spirits.  AYhatever  the  ultimate 
result  of  experiments  by  experts  in  the  study  of  psychical 
phenomena  may  be,  it  is  pretty  nearly  certain  to-daj^  that 
research  should  concentrate  itself  upon  the  double  lines  of 
investigation  indicated  by  these  two  rival  theories. 

As  Mr.  Cook  has  been  well  abused  by  some  of  the  reli- 
gious journals  for  testifying  to  what  he  saw,  let  me  add  to 
his  a  subsequent  experience  of  m^^  own. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  8th  of  June,  1880,  Mr.  Watkins 
came  to  my  house,  and  proposed  to  give  me  a  sitting.  As 
the  day  was  a  little  chill}^  we  went  into  the  dining-room, 
where  there  was  a  fire,  and  sat  at  the  large  dining-table 
covered  with  a  green  cloth.  The  dimensions  of  the  room 
are  17  by  19.  The  only  parties  present  besides  myself  and 
the  medium  were  Mrs.  E.  and  Miss  W.,  both  inmates  of 
the  family  —  Miss  W.  never  having  seen  Mr.  Watkins, 
and  only  entering  the  room  when  I  called  her  to  take  part 
in  the  sitting.  We  locked  the  two  doors  to  avoid  interrup- 
tion. On  the  table  we  placed  seven  slates,  two  bought  by 
myself  and  never  used,  and  one  more,  the  same  book-slate 
which  I  had  used  at  my  first  interview  with  the  medium  in 
1877 ;  and  four  small  slates  brought  by  the  medium,  and 
carefully  moistened  and  v/iped  by  me.  Blank  paper  and 
pencils  were  also  placed  on  the  table. 


38  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

We  sat  on  one  side  of  the  table  during  the  experiments, 
which  were  all  in  broad  da3dight,  while  the  medium  stood 
either  on  the  opposite  side,  or  at  the  head,  or  moving  about 
the  room,  so  that  nearly  his  whole  person  could  be  seen  by 
us  all  the  time.  First,  two  of  the  small  slates  were  placed, 
one  on  top  of  the  other,  with  a  crumb  of  slate-pencil  be- 
tween, and  while  w^e  all  held  them  by  the  rims,  the  scratch- 
ing of  a  pencil  was  instantaneously  audible ;  and  taking 
the  top  slate  from  the  lower  we  found  on  the  surface  of  the 
latter,  in  large,  legible  characters,  "I  am  here.  Lizzie." 
Previouslj'  to  the  experiment  we  were  all  fully  satisfied 
that  the  surfaces  were  entirely  clean.  I  had  washed  and 
rubbed  them  carefull}^  There  was  no  possible  chance  for 
a  substitution  of  concealed  slates. 

Writing  was  then  got  while  Miss  W.  held  the  slates,  and 
the  medium,  not  touching  them,  stood  aloof  more  than  four 
feet.  On  my  own  two  new  and  carefully-cleaned  slates, 
held  out  before  us  by  the  medium,  were  written  two  mes- 
sages—  one  of  ten  words,  addressed  to  me  and  signed  with 
my  father's  name,  and  one  to  Miss  W.  of  three  words, 
signed  With  the  name  of  a  young  departed  friend,  of  whom 
it  is  not  probable  the  medium  had  ever  heard.  In  one  in- 
stance the  two  ladies  held  out  each  a  pair  of  slates,  and 
got  writing  on  them  simultaneously,  the  medium  not  touch- 
ing them,  but  standing  at  the  opposite  side  of  the  table. 

It  was  then  proposed  that  my  book-slate  should  be  used. 
It  already  had  writing  on  both  sides,  which  I  objected  to 
having  obliterated.  On  one  side  was  a  letter  of  sixty 
words,  got  some  years  before  through  Watkins,  and  bear- 
ing the  name  of  my  sister  Lizzie  ;  and  on  the  other  side 
were  the  words,  "Your  aunt  Amelia  is  present,"  got 
through  Mr.  W.  H.  Powell,  another  medium,  for  direct 
writing.*     I  finally  consented  to  have  the  latter  inscription 

*  A  Rochester   (N.  Y.)  correspondent   of  the  Banner  of  Liglit,  writes    in 
that  paper  of  July  17,  1880:  "  On  two  occasions,  while  Mr.  Powell  was  in  Roch- 


AN  INFERENCE   OF  SCIENCE.  39 

obliterated  if  it  could  be  done  by  the  unknown  force  ap- 
parently at  work.  Taking  the  slate  on  which  the  writing 
in  large  unfaded  letters  still  stood,  I  shut  the  leaf,  and 
placed  it  in  the  hands  of  the  medium,  who  instantly  held  it 
out  before  us  all.  The  scratching  sound  of  a  pencil  was 
heard,  and  in  less  than  twelve  seconds  he  handed  the  book- 
slate  back  to  me.  I  lifted  the  leaf;  the  surface  on  which 
was  the  old  inscription  had  been  thoroughly  cleaned,  and 
on  it  were  the  words,  "Jly  dear  brother:  I  rub  this  all 
out.     Lizzie,  jour  sister." 

I  will  not  enumerate  the  many  satisfactory  proofs  of  in- 
dependent clairvoj^ance  (not  mind-reading)  which  we  got 
during  this  remarkable  sitting.  The}^  amounted  in  number 
to  fifteen.  It  has  been  said  that  mind-reading  and  clair- 
voyance are  simply  the  exercise  of  one  and  the  same  fac- 
ulty ;  in  the  one  case  there  being  a  perception  of  thoughts, 
and  in  the  other,  of  objects.  This  is  not  the  place  to  dis- 
cuss the  question.  I  will  merely  say  that  the  detection  of 
a  thought  may  come  from  a  look,  or  from  a  movement  of 
one  brain  in  sympathetic  relations  to  another,  just  as  the 
vibration  of  one  musical  chord  affects  that  of  another  of 
the  same  kind,  though  in  a  different  room.  But  the  detec- 
tion of  what  is  written  in  a  tightly-rolled  pellet,  the  con- 
ester,  a  figure  representing'  a  rose  was  drawn  on  the  under  side  of  a  slate,  the 
medium  simply  passing  his  finger  over  its  upper  surface,  not  touching  it,  how- 
ever, the  finger  at  no  time  being  nearer  than  an  inch  to  the  upper  surface  of 
the  slate."  The  conditions  were  such  as  "  precluded  all  possibility  of  decep- 
tion, fraud,  or  collusion,"  Having  witnessed  the  same  phenomenon  (June  21, 
1879)  through  the  same  medium,  under  strict  test  conditions,  and  under  the 
blaze  of  five  gas-burners  in  my  own  library,  with  five  of  my  friends  wfitching 
the  experiment,  I  can  readily  accept  this  statement  as  accurate.  T  still  have 
the  slate  on  which  the  rose  was  drawn,  and  the  word  "Winona"  was  written 
by  some  force  unknown.  I  held  the  slate  myself  by  one  of  the  wooden  rims 
duiing  the  experiment,  A  scientific  committee  of  six  persons,  among  whom 
wore  chemists  and  physicians,  tested  the  phenomena  through  Powell,  in  Phila- 
delphia, in  1879,  and  reported  :  "  It  is  one  of  those  peculiar  psychological  mani- 
festations that  we  cannot  account  for,"  The  names  of  the  committee  were: 
Dr.  Wm.  Paine,  Dr.  Eeuben  Carter,  B.  F.  Dubois,  John  P.  Hayes,  Alfred  Law* 
rence,  F.  J,  Keffer. 


4:0  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

tents  of  which  are  unknown  to  the  sitter,  would  seem  to  be 
an  achieyement  somewhat  more  clifiicult  and  inexplicable 
than  thought-reading.  Bear  in  mind  that  all  these  experi- 
ments took  place  in  broad  da3dight,  and  that  the  slates  and 
the  pellets  ivere  never  out  of  our  sight  for  a  moment. 

The  last  and  crowning  incident  of  the  evening  was  this  : 
I  had  written  on  a  pellet,  as  3^et  untouched  by  the  medium, 
the  name  of  m}^  mother.  Taking  two  slates,  one  placed 
over  the  other,  he  first  showed  us  the}'  were  clean,  and  then 
placed  them  on  a  small  work-table  in  one  corner  of  the 
room.  Then,  bethinking  himself  of  more  satisfactor}^  con- 
ditions, he  gave  the  same  slates  (as  I  carefull}^  satisfied 
m^'self)  to  Miss  W.,  went  off  to  the  opposite  corner  of  the 
room,  a  distance  of  more  than  twentj-one  feet  in  a  diag- 
onal line,  allowed  us  to  see  that  the  slates  ivere  dean  (so 
there  could  have  been  no  sleight-of-hand  substitution) ,  and 
told  Miss  W.  to  place  them  with  her  own  hands  on  the 
work-table.  As  soon  as  she  had  done  this,  and  resumed 
her  seat,  he  seemed  violently  convulsed,  and  reaching 
across  the  table  from  end  to  end,  seized  the  hand  of  Miss 
W.  The  parox3'sm  lasted  but  a  moment ;  the  sound  of 
writing  was  heard  on  the  distant  slate,  and  the  medium, 
still  standing  twent}''  feet  off,  told  Miss  W.  to  take  the 
slates  and  hand  them  to  me.  This  she  did.  I  took  the 
upper  from  the  lower,  and  there,  written  legibly,  and 
forming  seven  lines  on  the  slate,  were  these  words:  "My 
dear  son  and  daughter,  I  am  here  and  I  must  see  you 
again.     Can't  say  more  now.     Loving  mother,  M.  O.  S." 

The  extraordinary  facts  in  this  experiment  were :  That 
the  slates  were  not  touched  by  the  medium  after  the}^  had 
left  my  hands  till  the}^  were  brought  back  to  me  by  one  of 
the  ladies  and  I  had  read  the  writing  ;  that  I  had  just  pre- 
viously satisfied  myself  that  the  surfaces  were  clean  ;  and 
that  while  the  direct  writing  was  going  on,  and  could  be 


AN  INFERENCE   OP  SCIENCE.  41 

heard,  tho  medium  stood  at  a  distance  of  twenty-two  feet 
from  the  slates. 

Phenomena  like  these  seem  to  me  to  knock  out  of  mate- 
rialism its  raison  d'etre.  Where  and  how  can  it  find  an 
explanation  ?  It  is  impotent  to  suggest  one  consistent  with 
its  own  dogmas.  Here  are  proofs  of  an  intelligent  force 
acting  outside  of  a  human  brain,  outside  of  any  visible  or- 
ganism. In  all  ages  of  the  world  such  a  force  has  been 
compared  to  the  unseen  human  breath  —  spiritus. 

In  May,  1880,  having  learned  from  Mr.  Watkins  that  Mr. 
Hiram  Sibley  of  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  a  gentleman  of  wealth, 
had  carefully  investigated  the  phenomena,  and  had  offered 
him  a  large  sum  of  money  to  disclose  "  the  secret  of  his 
t7i.ck,"  1  wrote  to  Mr.  Sibley  for  confirmation  of  the  state- 
ment, and  got  a  satisfactor}^  repl}^,  dated  Ma}"  10th,  1880, 
in  wliich  he  tells  me  that  he  and  Judge  Shurat  had  paid 
Watkins  a  hundred  dollars  for  about  ten  sittings  ;  and  that 
they  got  the  independent  writing  in  a  wa^^  to  satisfj^  them 
that  some  unknown  power  moved  the  pencil.  Mr.  Sibley 
writes:  "I  off'ered  Mr.  Watkins  a  large  sum  of  mone}', 
which  I  proposed  to  settle  on  his  wife  and  children,  if  he 
would  disclose  the  trick  (if  trick  it  were)  by  which  the 
manifestation  was  produced  ;  and  furthermore,  I  off'ered  to 
give  bonds,  if  he  desired  it,  that  I  would  not  divulge  his 
secret.  I  am  ready  to  repeat  the  off'er  now  to  any  person 
that  can  expose  or  explain  the  trick,  if  trick  it  be." 

This  offer  of  several  thousand  dollars,  though  publicly 
made,  has  never  been  accepted.  The  public  have  been 
told  of  one  "  exposer"  who  went  to  Mr.  Sibley  to  explain 
how  it  was  all  done  ;  but  the  conditions  he  wanted  were  so 
ludicrously  unlike  the  simple,  unconditional  way  in  which 
the  phenomena  are  produced  through  Watkins,  that  the 
pretender  was  dismissed  as  either  an  ignoramus  or  a  char- 
latan.    The  solution  of  all   these  pretended  exposers  is 


42  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

"  sleight-of-hand  ;  "  but  there  is  no  possibility  of  an}-  such 
jugglery  under  the  conditions. 

Mr.  J.  Edwin  Hunt,  of  the  City  Treasury  Office,  Boston, 
who  had  been  an  avowed  materialist,  hearing  of  Mr.  Cook's 
experiences  in  my  library",  sought  to  test  their  truth.  He 
writes,  under  date  of  Jul}"  11th,  1880,  in  respect  to  his 
^•isit  to  Mr.  Watkins : 

"  I  came,  I  saw,  and  I  —  was  conquered  ;  that  is,  I  wit- 
nessed in  his  presence  the  fact  of  the  intelligent  movement 
of  matter,  without  any  visible  human  or  other  contact.  I 
know  that  I  was  not  deceived'.  I  not  only  saw  the  writing 
after  it  was  written,  but  heard  the  pencil  moving  while  it 
w^as  being  done.  I  know  that  there  was  no  writing  upon 
the  slates  when  the  pencil  was  placed  between  them,  and 
the  slates  were  not  out  of  my  sight  for  a  second  during  the 
time  I  sat  with  Mr.  W.  The  signature  to  the  conymunica- 
tion  was  the  name  of  a  personal  friend  of  mine,  whose  fu- 
neral I  had  attended  some  three  weeks  before,  and  the  com- 
munication was  a  direct  and  pertinent  answer  to  a  question 
addressed  to  him,  and  folded  securely  up,  and  the  question 
was  written  a  week  before  I  had  the  sitting.  I  had  never 
seen  Mr.  W.,  nor  he  me,  until  the  da}"  of  the  sitting,  which 
was  the  last  da}"  of  March,  1880.  He  had  no  means  of 
knowing  anything  about  it,  and  as  the  question  was  mixed 
up  with  eight  or  ten  others,  and  was  not  opened  until  after 
the  writing  on  the  slate,  I  did  not  know  myself  what  was 
in  it  until  the  writing  was  completed  and  the  pellet  was 
opened.  In  conclusion,  I  wish  to  say  that  as  a  result  of 
this  experience  of  mine,  I  am  satisfied  beyond  all  doubt  of 
the  existence  of  an  intelligent  force  outside  of  the  medium 
or  the  sitter,  and  believe  that  the  inference  is  strong  and 
almost  irresistible  that  this  intelligent  force  is  that  of  an 
individual  human  spirit,  who  once  lived  in  the  bod}"." 

Mr.  John  L.  O'Sullivan,  formerly  U.  S.  Charge  to  Port- 
ugal, and  a  gentleman  long  personally  known  to  me,  has 
published  an  account  of  his  experiences  (May,  1880)  with 
Alexander  Phillips,  a  medium  aged  twenty -three,  at  his 
rooms,  No.  133  West  Thirty-sixth  Street,  New  York.     My 


AN  INFERENCE   OF   SCIENCE.  43 

friend  of  forty  j^ears,  Dr.  J.  R.  Buchanan,  was  present. 
Under  test  conditions,  and  in  full  gaslight,  they  repeatedly 
got  the  independent  writing.  Several  Latin  quotations 
were  given  ;  among  the  rest  the  following  translation  of  a 
stanza  from  Jane  Taylor's  little  nursery  poem,  beginning 
"Twinkle,  twinkle,  little  star."  The  writing,  small,  close, 
and  back-handed,  was  finally  deciphered  thus  : 

"  Mica,  mica,  parva  stella, 
Miror  quonam  sis  tam  bella, 
Splendens  eminens  in  illo 
Alto  velut  gemma  coelo." 

To  Mr.  O'Sullivan's  account  of  repeated  experiments.  Dr. 
Buchanan  adds  his  testimony  thus;  "To  the  foregoing 
statement  of  Mr.  O'Sullivan  I  would  add  my  indorsement 
of  its  absolute  and  minute  correctness." 

I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  some  correspondence  with  Mr. 
Alfred  Russell  Wallace,  the  eminent  English  naturalist. 
He  is  the  same  who  shares  with  Mr.  Charles  Darwin  the 
honor  of  having  originated  the  theory  of  natural  selection. 
He  testifies  to  having  witnessed  (Sept.  21st,  1877),  at  a 
private  house  in  Richmond,  on  the  Thames,  the  phenome- 
non of  independent  writing  in  a  room  where  the  light  was 
sufficient  to  see  every  object  on  the  table.  Dr.  Francis  W. 
Monck  was  the  medium.  After  describing  the  experiment 
in  a  letter  to  the  London  "  Spectator"  of  Oct.  6th,  1877, 
Mr.  Wallace  remarks  :  "  The  essential  features  of  this  ex- 
periment are  :  That  I  myself  cleaned  and  tied  up  the  slates  ; 
that  I  kept  my  hand  on  them  all  the  time  ;  that  they  never 
went  out  of  my  sight  for  a  moment ;  and  that  I  named  the 
word  to  be  written,  and  the  manner  of  writing  it,  after  they 
v^ere  thus  secured  and  held  hy  me.  I  ask.  How  are  these 
facts  to  be  explained,  and  what  interpretation  is  to  be  put 
upon  them?"     Mr.  Edward  T.  Bennett  indorses  Mr.  Wal- 


44  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

lace's  statement  in  the  remark:  "1  was  present  on  this 
occasion,  and  certify  that  Mr.  Wallace's  account  of  what 
happened  is  correct." 

In  reference  to  his  experiences  with  Hemy  Slade,  Mr. 
Wallace  testifies  as  follows  : 

"Writing  came  upon  the  upper  part  of  the  slate,  when 
I  myself  held  it  pressed  close  up  to  the  under  side  of  the 
table,  Loth  Dr.  Slade's  hands  bein.o'  upon  the  table  in  con- 
tact with  m}'  other  hand.  The  writing  was  audible  while 
in  progress.  This  one  phenomenon  is  absolutely  conclu- 
sive,   it  admits  of  no  explanation  or  imitation  by  conjuring. 

"  Writing  also  came  on  the  under  side  of  the  slate  while 
laid  flat  upon  the  table.  Dr.  Slade's  hand  being  laid  flat  on 
it,  Immediatelj'  under  my  eyes. 

"  While  Dr.  Slade  was  holding  the  slate  in  one  hand,  the 
other  being  clasped  on  mine,  a  distinct  hand  rose  rapidly 
up  and  down  between  the  table  and  m}^  body  ;  and,  finally, 
while  Dr.  Slade's  hands  and  mine  were  both  on  the  centre 
of  the  table,  the  further  side  rose  up  till  it  was  nearly  ver- 
tical, when  the  whole  table  rose  and  turned  over  on  to  my 
head. 

"  These  phenomena  occurred  in  broad  daylight,  with  the 
sun  shining  into  the  room,  and  with  no  one  present  but  Dr. 
Slade  and  m3'self.  The}'  may  be  witnessed  with  slight  va- 
riations by  any  of  our  men  of  science,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  those  who  do  not  take  the  trouble  to  see  them  will,  at 
all  events,  cease  to  speak  disparagingly  of  the  intellectual 
and  perceptive  powers  of  those  who,  having  seen,  declare 
them  to  be  realities." 

It  is  true,  as  Mr.  A.  R.  Wallace  has  said,  that  no  man 
of  any  authority  has  been  known  to  question  the  genuine- 
ness of  the  phenomena  after  being  once  thoroughlj^  con- 
vinced of  their  occurrence.  But  novices  in  the  investiga- 
tion sometimes  fall  back  in  their  convictions,  after  being 
powerfull}^  impressed  b}^  the  phenomena  as  the}^  occurred. 
We  must  not  be  surprised  should  this  prove  to  be  the  case 
with  some  of  the  German  professors,  who,  knowing  little 


AN   INFERENCE   OF   SCIENCE.  45 

or  nothing  of  the  phenomena,  were  carried  aw&j  hy  the 
manifestations  through  Dr.  Slade.  Possibly  tliev'  may  be 
laughed  out  or  reasoned  out  of  their  convictions. 

It  is  not  surprising  if,  when  an  inexperienced  investi- 
gator comes  to  reason  on  the  phenomena,  the}'  should  seem 
to  him,  after  a  brief  conviction  of  their  genuineness,  utterly 
incredible.  Hence  the  half-way  converts  not  unfrequentlj' 
turn  back.  It  requires  a  long  preparation  for  a  philosopher 
or  a  phj-sicist  to  be  able,  like  Fichte,  to  be  reconciled  to  all 
the  facts  that  conflict  with  his  own  past  teachings. 

Zollner  (born  1834),  and  who  has  recorded  the  phenomena 
through  Slade  in  some  elaborate  works,  has  not  retrograded. 
He  will  perhaps  live  to  find  new  reasons  for  the  confirma- 
tion of  his  experiences. 

Immanuel  Herman  Fichte  (1797-1879),  son  of  the  famous 
John  Gottlieb  Fichte,  was  a  Spiritualist  long  before  Slade 
visited  Germany.  Just  before  his  death  he  put  forth  a 
pamphlet,  in  which  he  asseverates  the  fundamental  facts, 
and  earnestly  commends  the  whole  great  subject  to  the 
attention  of  the  scientific  and  religious  world.  He  ably 
answers  Haeckel,  the  enthusiastic  materialist,  who  de- 
plored the  "  simplicit}'"  of  the  eminent  German  phj'sicists 
who  "fell  into  Slade's  trap."  Fichte  asserts  the  impor- 
tance of  the  results  arrived  at,  and  claims  that  Slade's 
manifestations  belong  to  the  domain  of  phj'sics. 

Professor  Ulrici,  of  Halle  (born  1806),  was  not  a  witness 
of  the  Slade  phenomena,  though  he  partially  accepted  them, 
on  testimon}',  as  confirming  much  in  his  own  philosophical 
speculations.  Yfundt's  attack,  however,  seems  to  have 
caused  him  to  draw  back  a  little.  He  evidently  lacked 
that  force  of  conviction  which  actual  personal  knowledge 
of  the  phenomena,  continued  through  man}'  years,  must 
always  inspire. 

Fichte,  a  resident  of  Stuttgard,  was  introduccvi  to  the 
phenomenon  of  independent  writing   by  the   late  Baron 


46  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

Louis  Guldenstubbe,  who  departed  this  life  May  27th, 
1873,  at  his  residence,  29  Rue  de  Trevise,  Paris,  in  his 
fifty-third  3'ear.  He  was  chieflj^  known  b}^  his  researches 
and  experiments  in  pneumatolog3\  Of  Swedish  origin,  he 
belonged  to  an  ancient  Scandinavian  familj"  of  historical 
renown,  two  of  his  ancestors  of  the  same  name  having 
been  burnt  alive  in  1309,  in  company  with  Jacques  de 
JMelay,  by  order  of  Pope  Clement  the  Fifth.  The  baron 
lived  a  retired  life,  with  his  accomplished  sister.  I~Ie  is 
affectionately  remembered  for  his  noble,  gentle,  and  urbane 
bearing,  and  for  his  numerous  unassuming  charities.  His 
principal  work,  "  La  Realite  cles  Esprits,  et  le  Phenomene 
merveilleux  de  leur  £criture  Directe,"  was  published  in 
Paris,  by  D.  Franck,  in  1857. 

The  baron  passed  the  winter  of  1869-70  at  Stuttgard. 
A  man  of  culture,  independent  in  his  circumstances,  and 
of  high  social  position,  he  was  probabty  himself  a  medium, 
though  unconscious  of  the  fact.  He  got  the  independent 
writing,  but  thought  it  came  as  an  answer  to  his  prayers 
for  a  proof  of  immortality.  Mj  friend,  the  Pev.  Yv'illiam 
Mountford,  of  Boston,  who  knew  the  baron  and  witnessed 
remarkable  physical  phenomena  in  his  presence,  tells  me 
he  was  an  excellent  Hebrew  scholar  and  a  sincere  student 
of  psj'chic  evidences  ;  hy  no  means  an  enthusiast,  but  a 
modest,  earnest,  truth-seeking  gentleman.  The  testimonj- 
of  such  a  person  to  a  palpable,  objective  phenomenon, 
with  no  medium  present,  unless  he  was  one  himself,  is 
exceptionally  precious. 

Guldenstubbe  dedicates  his  volume  to  the  Count  de 
S^:apary,  Count  D'Ourches,  and  General  Baron  de  Bre- 
wern,  three  well-known  gentlemen,  who  repeatedlj^  wit- 
nessed the  phenomenon  of  independent  writing  in  his  pres- 
ence, sometimes  in  his  own  house,  and  sometimes  in  old 
churches  and  b}^  the  side  of  ancient  tombs.  The  writing 
was  ou  sheets  of  paper,   which,  with  a  view  to  scientific 


AN  INFERENCE   OF    SCIENCE.  47 

verification,  were  properly  marked  b}^  the  witnesses.  The 
phenomena  began  August  13,  1856,  and  Guldenstubbe 
refers  to  them  in  his  dedicatory  preface  as  ' '  more  brutally 
conclusive  than  all  reasonings  — plus  hrutalement  conduant 
que  tous  les  raisonne^nients." 

"These  phenomena,"  he  tells  us,  are  now  fixed  "upon 
an  immovable  basis  of  facts  ; "  that  ' '  henceforth  the  im- 
mortalit}^  of  the  soul  can  be  regarded  as  a  fact  of  science," 
and  that  Spiritualism  "  throws  a  bridge  from  our  world  to 
the  invisible." 

"  You  know,  gentlemen,"  he  sa3's  in  his  dedication,  "that 
my  whole  life  has  been  devoted  to  the  study  of  the  super- 
natural,* and  of  its  relations  to  visible  and  material  nature. 
I  have  regarded  as  the  great  end  and  object  of  m}'  life  the 
irreversible  demonstration  of  the  immortalit}^  of  the  soul, 
of  the  direct  intervention  of  spirits,  of  revelation  and  of 
miracle,  b}^  the  experimental  method. 

"The  phenomena  of  inspiration,  of  trance,  of  invisible  me- 
dial attraction,  of  m_ysterious  raps,  and  the  movement  of 
inert,  inanimate  objects,  have  helped  me  on  in  encouraging 
me  to  persevere  in  my  arduous  and  arid  researches  ;  but 
all  these  manifestations  are  far  from  being  conslusive. 
These  phenomena  can,  at  the  most,  give  us  only  a  reve- 
lation of  forces  and  of  unknown  laws.  It  is  only  the 
direct  writing  which  reveals  to  us  the  reality  of  an  invisi- 
ble world,  whence  emanate  religious  revelations  and  mira- 
cles. .  .  .  Henceforth  hope  can  spring  afresh  in  the  heart 
of  humanity,  —  its  religious  needs  in  respect  to  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul,  the  basis  of  all  truths,  being  fully  satis- 
fied. .  .  .  Let  us  remember  that  in  regard  to  all  great 
truths,  the  more  sublime  and  profound  they  are,  the  more 

*  The  Baron  repeatedly  uses  the  word  supernatural  where  Spiritualists 
generally  would  say  superhuman.  We  have  no  evidence  as  yet  that  the 
so-called  spiritual  phenomena  are  not  embraced  iu  the  sphere  of  the  natural, 
since  everything  phenomenal  may  be  properly  so  regarded. 


48  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

they  encounter  a  press  of  obstacles  and  are  repelled  by  the 
nian}^  It  is  onl}'  in  the  issue  of  the  shocks  of  discussion, 
engaged  in  b}^  serious  and  earnest  minds  which  have  been 
able  to  verify  the  marvellous  phenomenon  of  a  direct  cor- 
respondence from  spirits,  that  human  intelligence,  being 
of  a  progressive  nature,  can  ultimately  be  infiuenced  to 
admit  the  truth.   ... 

"Let  us  advance,  then,  boldly  on' this  line.  We  may 
not  stay  here  to  witness  the  cheering  day,  the  dawn  of 
which  appears  to  us  from  afar  on  the  horizon,  and  which 
illustrious  geniuses,  such  as  Sv»'edenborg,  Bengel,  Jung- 
Stilling,  and  Count  Joseph  de  Maistre,  have  had  the  pre- 
sentiment of,  and  have  saluted  in  the  name  of  a  third 
revelation,  according  to  the  prophet  Joel  (chap.  ii.  28,  29)  : 
'  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  afterward,  that  I  will  pour  out 
my  spirit  upon  all  flesh  ;  and  your  sons  and  your  daughters 
shall  prophesj',  jour  old  men  shall  dream  dreams,  3'our 
young  men  shall  see  visions  :  and  also  upon  the  servants 
and  the  handmaids  in  those  days  will  I  pour  out  m}'  spirit.' 

"  Our  obscure  names  ma}^  be  lost  under  the  rubbish  and 
the  ruins  which  the  ages  are  continuall}^  heaping  up,  but 
we  shall  carry  with  us  into  another  and  better  phase  of 
existence  the  sweet  consolation  of  having  chosen  the  path 
which  leads  to  God,  since  that  which  we  represent  is  of 
the  Eternal  Essence." 

Among  the  ocular  witnesses  of  independent  writing  and 
other  phenomena  through  Guldenstubbe,  besides  the  three 
already  mentioned,  were  M.  Delamarre,  editor  of  La  Pa- 
trie;  M.  Choisselat,  editor  of  the  Uaivers ;  Robert  Dale 
Owen,  of  the  United  States  ;  M.  Lacordaire,  brother  of  the 
great  preacher ;  M.  de  Bonnechose,  the  well-known  histo- 
rian ;  M.  Kiorboe,  a  well-known  Swedish  painter,  resident 
in  Paris ;  Baron  Von  Rosenberg,  German  ambassador  at 
the  Court  of  Wtirtemberg ;  Prince  Leonide  Galitzin,  find 
two  other  representatives  of  the  nobility  of  Moscow  ;  Doc- 


AN   INFERENCE   OF   SCIENCE.  49 

tor  Bowron  of  Paris  ;  Colonel  Kollmann  of  Paris  ;  and  my 
friend,  the  Rev.  William  Mountford  of  Boston,  Mass., 
'vhose  communication  to  me  in  respect  to  the  baron  I  sent 
to  the  London  Spiritualist,  where  it  appeared  Dec.  21, 1877. 

On  the  4th  of  October,  1856,  the  verse,  "O  death, 
where  is  thy  sting  ?  O  grave,  where  is  th}^  victory  ?  "  was 
written  by  an  iovisible  power  in  Greek,  in  the  presence 
of  Count  D'Ourches,  Dr.  Georgii,  and  Baron  Gulden- 
stubbe.  A  fac-simile  of  it  is  given  in  the  volume,  from 
which  I  translate. 

It  is  impossible  to  read  this  work  by  Guldenstubbe  with- 
out being  impressed  by  the  intense  sincerit}^,  as  well  as  by 
the  intelligence  and  eloquence,  of  the  writer. 

"Here  is  a  book,"  he  saj^s,  "which  contains  the  first 
positive  elements  of  the  great  science  of  direct  communi- 
cation with  the  supernatural  world  ;  the  unique  basis  of  all 
historical  religions,  from  the  majestic  law  of  Jehovah,  en- 
graved," (as  Moses  thought,)  "  by  the  finger  of  God  him- 
self on  the  two  tablets  in  presence  of  Moses,  to  the  words, 
full  of  a  divine  unction,  of  the  holy  martyr  of  Calvary ; 
from  the  Yeda  of  the  Indians  to  the  Zend-Avesta  of  Zoro- 
aster ;  from  the  m^'sterious  ceremonies  of  Eg3'pt  to  the 
oracles  of  Greece  and  Pome." 

Guldenstubbe  was  under  a  mistake  in  supposing  that  he 
was  the  first  in  modern  times  to  get  direct  writing.  It 
came  with  the  earliest  American  phenomena  in  1848.  It 
was  quite  common  in  the  manifestations  at  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Phelps's  house  in  Stratford,  Conn.,  in  1850-51,  as  related 
by  him  in  a  letter  to  me  which  I  published  at  the  time  in 
the  Boston  Transcript;  and  innumerable  instances  occurred 
at  Hydesville,  Rochester,  Buffalo,  and  Auburn,  in  the 
United  States,  before  the  date  of  the  Paris  phenomena. 

Guldenstubbe  proceeds  to  say:  "A  marvellous  discovery 
was  made  by  the  author  at  Paris,  Aug.  13,  1856,  the  day 
when  the  first  experiences,  crowned  with  succesSj  took 
4 


50  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

place  :  it  is  that  of  the  direct  writing  of  spirits  witJiom  any 
intermediary  whatever ;  that  is  to  sa}^,  without  either  me- 
dium or  inanimate  object."  (Here  he  assumes  that  he 
himself  was  not  a  medium.)  "'This  marvellous  phenom- 
enon confirms  what  Moses  says  (Exod.  xxxi.  18  ;  xxxii. 
15,  16  ;  xxxiv.  28  ;  xxiv.  12  ;  Deut.  iv.  13  ;  v.  22  ;  ix.  10  ; 
x.  1-5)  concerning  the  direct  revelation  of  the  Decalogue  ; 
and  what  Daniel  recounts  on  the  subject  of  the  marvellous 
writing  on  the  wall,  which  took  place  during  the  feast  of 
King  Belshazzar  (Daniel  v.  5,  &c.). 

"  The  discover}"  of  writing  directlj^  supernatural  (  ?)  is  so 
much  the  more  precious,  because  it  can  be  proved  by  ex- 
periment repeated  at  will  b}"  the  author  in  presence  of  the 
incredulous,  who  can  themselves  furnish  the  paper,  to 
avoid  the  absurd  objection  which  a  skeptical  materialism 
has  put  forward,  that  the  paper  used  may  have  been  chem- 
ically prepared.  It  is  precisely  in  the  application  of  the 
experimental  method  to  direct  supernatural  (  ?)  phenomena 
or  miracles,  that  reside  the  originality  and  the  validitj^  of  this 
discover}^,  which  has  no  precedent  in  the  annals  of  human- 
ity ;  for  hitherto  it  has  not  been  a  quality  of  miracles  to 
admit  of  reiteration.  In  order  to  prove  their  reality  it  has 
been  necessary  to  be  content  with  the  testimony  of  those 
who  have  witnessed  them. 

''In  our  da}^,  when  all  the  sciences  proceed  by  the 
experimental  method,  the  most  clearly  verified  results  of 
observation,  and  the  most  ample  testimony,  hardly  suffice, 
when  an  extraordinary  phenomenon,  not  to  be  explained 
by  known  ph3'sical  laws,  is  in  question.  Man,  spoiled  by 
the  palpable  experiences  of  the  phj'sicists,  no  more  attaches 
faith  to  historical  testimony,  above  all  when  it  pertains  to 
mysterious  phenomena  revealing  the  existence  of  powers 
invisible  and  superior  to  the  forces  and  the  laws  of  ipert 
matter. 

"To-daj',  in  moral  concerns  as  well  as  in  the  exact  sci- 


AN  INFERENCE   OP  SCIENCE.  51 

ences,  our  age  demands  facts ;  and  here  we  give  them  in 
abundance.  More  than  five  hundred  experiences  have 
been  had  since  the  memorable  13th  of  August,  1856,  by 
the  author  and  his  two  friends,  Count  D'  Ourches  and  Gen. 
Baron  de  Brewern.  More  than  fifty  persons,  supplying 
their  own  paper,  have  been  enabled  to  verify  the  astonish- 
ing phenomenon  of  direct  writing  by  invisible  intelligences. 

"Most  of  our  experiences  took  place  in  the  Hall  of  An- 
tiques in  the  Louvre,  in  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Denis,  and  in 
the  different  churches  and  cemeteries  of  Paris,  as  well  as 
in  the  author's  own  apartments.  Rue  du  Chemin  de  Ver- 
sailles^ 74. 

' '  The  lettered  public  are  well  aware  that  the  natural  sci- 
ences did  not  make  any  veritable  progress  until  questions 
by  the  experimental  method  were  addressed  to  Nature. 
So  it  is  with  Spiritualism  :  this  science  of  invisible  causes 
can  only  become  a  positive  science  in  the  same  experimen- 
tal waj'.  We  must  have  recourse  to  this  method  to  beat 
down  and  reduce  to  silence  the  arrogance  of  those  physi- 
cists who  haA^e  presumed  in  our  daj^  to  encroach  even  upon 
the  domain  of  the  moral  sciences  and  the  higher  philos- 
ophy. Surely  there  is  nothing  more  absurd  than  to  see 
physicists  assume  the  position  of  competent  judges  on  a 
question  of  metaphj^sics  and  psycholog3\" 

Guldenstubbe,  we  have  seen,  did  not  regard  himself 
as  a  medium,  though  the  pneumatographic  and  other  psy- 
cho-physical phenomena  occurred  in  his  presence.  Perhaps 
it  is  on  what  he  claims  to  be  their  non-medial  character 
that  he  bases  his  pretensions  as  a  discoverer.  He  tells  us 
that  his  first  experience  in  getting  spirit-writings  was  pre- 
ceded by  the  incessant  prayer  that  he  might  be  instrumen- 
tal in  proving  the  immortalit}^  of  the  soul.  He  put  some 
letter-paper  and  a  sharpened  lead-pencil  in  a  little  locked 
box,  the  key  of  which  he  always  carried  about  his  person. 
To  no  one  did  he  confide  his  intention.     He  waited  twelve 


52  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

daj^s  m  vain.     Not  the  least  trace  of  a  pencil  was  there  on 
the  paper. 

But  what  was  his  astonishment  when  he  remarked,  on 
the  memorable  day  already  named,  certain  mysterious 
characters  traced  on  the  paper.  Ten  times  during  the 
same  da}^,  at  intervals  of  half  an  hour,  he  got  the  same 
experience,  substituting  at  every  trial  new  pieces  of  paper. 
Every  time  the  result  was  a  success. 

On  the  14th  of  August,  1856,  he  got  the  same  phenom- 
enon twenty  times  by  leaving  the  box  open,  and  not  al- 
lowing it  to  be  out  of  his  sight.  It  w^as  then  that  he  saw 
that  the  characters  and  words  in  the  Esthonian  language 
were  formed  or  engraved  on  the  paper  without  a  movement 
of  the  pencil.  From  that  moment,  seeing  that  a  pencil 
was  superfluous,  he  ceased  to  put  it  on  the  paper ;  he 
would  simpl}^  place  a  blank  sheet  of  paper  either  on  the 
table  at  his  own  lodgings,  or  on  the  pedestal  of  some 
antique  statue  or  urn  at  the  Louvre,  at  Saint  Denis,  and 
other  churches.  It  was  the  same  in  the  experiences  got  in 
the  different  cemeteries  of  Paris. 

After  having  proved  satisfactorily  to  himself  the  phe- 
nomenon of  direct  writing  by  more  than  thirty  trials,  he 
communicated  the  secret  to  Count  D'Ourches,  a  well- 
known  investigator.  The  Count  witnessed  the  phenom- 
enon more  than  forty  times,  sometimes  at  his  own  apart- 
ments, sometimes  at  the  Baron's,  sometimes  at  the  Louvre, 
and  on  the  benches  which  surround  the  monuments  of  Pas- 
cal and  of  Racine  in  the  Montmartre  ceraeter3^  Subse- 
quentl}^,  in  the  month  of  October,  the  Count,  without  the 
co-operation  of  Guldenstubbe,  got  several  direct  writings 
from  supposed  spirits  ;  among  the  rest  one  from  his  mother., 
who  had  left  this  life  twenty  years  before. 

Sixty-seven  fac-similes  of  writings  got  b}^  our  author  are 
given  in  his  book.  As  to  the  question,  W^ictt  means  do  the 
spirits  employ  in  writing?  he  tells  us  that  the  phenomenon 


AN   INFERENCE   OF   SCIENCE.  53 

proves  that  the  spirit  must  act  direct^  upon  matter,  proh- 
ably  by  mere  jorce  of  will.  The  celerit}'  with  which  writings 
are  produced,  often  quicker  than  human  thought,  is  a  con- 
firmation of  this  theor}^,  which  full}"  accords  with  my  own 
experience.  I  have  known  a  message  of  fifty-two  words  to 
be  written  on  a  slate  in  less  than  fifteen  seconds.  Gen- 
erally, where  it  is  desired  that  the  sound  of  the  movement 
of  the  pencil  shall  be  heard,  the  pencil  may  be  used ;  but 
this  is  not  alwa3"s  known  to  be  the  case. 

"During  the  first  fortnight,  dating  from  the  day  of  my 
discovery  of  direct  writing,"  writes  Guldenstubbe,  "the 
tables  on  which  the  spirits  wrote  would  move  about  alone, 
and  come  to  rejoin  the  author  in  another  room,  after  having 
traversed  several  apartments.  The  tables  moved  sometimes 
slowlj",  sometimes  with  astonishing  rapidity ;  the  author 
would  trj^  to  bar  their  progress  sometimes  with  chairs,  but 
they  would  make  detours  in  continuing  their  course  in  the 
same  direction.  On  one  occasion  he  saw  a  little  round 
table,  on  which  the  spirits  had  been  accustomed  to  write  in 
his  presence,  transported  through  the  air  from  one  end  of  a 
chamber  to  the  other.   .   .   . 

'  "Nevertheless,  though  the  effects  of  the  influence  of 
freed  spirits  may  correspond  with  those  of  spirits  incarnate, 
it  must  be  confessed  that  their  means  must  differ  from  ours, 
in  being  no  longer  fettered  by  material  impediments.  It  is 
probable  that  the  action  and  influence  of  spirits  offer  some 
analogy  with  the  phenomenon  of  creation ;  spirits  being 
finite  images  of  God,  who  is  the  Absolute  Spirit  par  excel- 
leyice.  Surely,  in  a  state  of  existence  where  time  is  merged 
in  eternitj^,  and  space  is  comprised  in  infinit}^  there  cannot 
be  a  question  of  means  and  appliances  to  produce  any 
material  effect  whatever,  such  as  direct  writing,  &c.  The 
creative  will  is  alone  sufficient  in  acting  on  inert  matter 
{Mens  agitat  molem).  The  spirit  of  man,  after  having 
been  released  from  the  phj'sical  body  by  death,  and  after 


54  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

having  cast  off  the  obstructions  of  matter,  enters  into  a 
state  less  imperfect.  It  is,  then,  rational  to  suppose  that 
his  power  over  the  elements  of  nature  and  .his  knowledge 
of  the  laws  which  govern  them  should  be  enlarged. 

"It  is,  however,  possible  that  the  spirits  w^ho  envelop 
themselves  often  with  a  subtile  substance,  an  ethereal 
body,  according  to  all  the  sacred  traditions  of  antiquity 
(which  explains  the  objective  reality  of  apparitions),  may 
concentre,  by  their  force  of  will  and  b}^  the  aid  of  this 
subtile  body,  a  current  of  electricitj'  upon  any  object  what- 
ever, such  as  a  sheet  of  paper ;  and  then  the  letters  are 
formed  on  it,  just  as  the  light  of  the  sun  makes  an  im- 
pression of  objects  on  the  daguerreotj^pe  plate.  And  so 
Moses,  in  reference  to  the  tables  of  the  Decalogue  (Exod. 
xxxii.  15,  16),  says:  'The  tables  were  written  on  both 
their  sides ;  on  the  one  side,  and  on  the  other,  were  they 
written.  And  the  tables  were  the  work  of  God,  and  the 
writing  was  the  writing  of  God,  graven  upon  the  tables.' 
The  greater  part  of  my  direct  writing  from  spirits  would 
seem  to  be  done  with  the  lead-pencil ;  in  some  thirt}^,  blue 
or  black  ink  seems  to  have  been  used." 

On  the  question  of  the  communications  being  a  reflex  of 
the  mind  of  the  supposed  mediums,  Guldenstubbe  sa3^s  : 
' '  M}^  own  experience  j^roves  ampl}^  that  the  reflex  of 
thoughts  must  pass  for  nothing  in  the  phenomenon.  In 
the  first  place,  generally  the  spirit  whom  we  desire  does  not 
present  himself  for  writing ;  another  comes,  on  whom  we 
have  by  no  means  thought,  and  whose  name  even  is  some- 
times unknown  to  us.  As  to  S3mipathetic  spirits,  they 
come  hardly  ever  during  these  experiences.  The  spirits 
have  often  written  whole  pages,  sometimes  with  a  lead- 
pencil,  sometimes  with  ink,  when  I  have  been  busied  with 
other  matters.  The  notion  of  reflex  action  contradicts  my 
five  hundred  experiences,  for  I  have  generally  made  no 
attempt  to  evoke  any  particular  spirit." 


AN   INFERENCE    OP   SCIENCE.  00 

He  gives  the  names  of  twenty  e3^e-witnesses  to  the  phe- 
nomenon of  pneumatography  ;  and  says  he  could  give  the 
names  of  fifty.  ''No  reasoning,"  he  tells  us,  "can  per- 
suade us  that  a  fact,  once  thoroughly  proved,  has  not  ex- 
isted ;  surely,  no  Christian  ought  to  refuse  such  a  proof,  at 
once  moral  and  material,  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  as 
is  given  us  in  direct  spirit- writing.  The  marvellous  facts 
I  have  adduced  are  analogous  with  the  phenomena  upon 
which  all  the  positive  religions,  all  the  sacred  traditions, 
and  all  the  mythologies  of  all  nations,  are  based.* 

"My  conclusions  are  in  accord  with  the  beliefs  of  six- 
teen centuries.  It  is  only  the  18th  and  the  19th  that  have 
professed  ideas  diametricall}^  opposed  to  Spiritualism.  .  .  . 
I  hold  that  I  have  laid  the  first  foundations  of  a  positive 
science  of  Spiritualism,  based  upon  irrefutable  facts.  .  .  . 
Surelj^  a  day  will  come  when  humanit}^  will  turn  with  a 
compassionate  disdain  from  those  materialistic  phj-sicists, 
who  believe  themselves  to  be  the  sole  depositaries  of  the 
laws  of  nature,  of  which  they  only  know  the  material 
appearances. 

"Unhappily  the  demonpJiobia  of  priests  and  pastors  on 
one  side,  and  the  materialism,  skepticism,  rationalism,  and 
excessive  study  of  the  sciences  claimed  as  exact,  on  the 
other  side,  have  almost  deracinated  the  germ  of  the  reli- 
gious sense  in  the  heart  of  man.  Truly  there  is  but  one 
direct  phenomenon,  at  once  intelligent  and  material,  inde- 
pendent of  the  will  and  the  imagination,  such  as  the  direct 
writing  of  spirits,  whom  one  had  neither  evoked  nor  in- 
voked, which  can  serve  as  a  proof  undeniable  of  a  super- 
sensuous  world." 

With  great  stores  of  erudition  at  his  command,  Gulden- 
Btubbe   shows  how  almost   all  the  great  philosophers  of 

*  For  a  confirmation  of  tliis  statement,  so  far  as  it  relates  to  the  Hebrew  and 
Christian  religions,  see  Dr.  Eugene  Crowell's  "  Primitive  Christianity  and  Mod- 
ern Spiritualism,"  (Carleton,  New  York,  1874.) 


56  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

ancient  times  were  Spiritualists.  Even  Aristotle  tells  us 
that  invisible  beings  are  as  substantial  as  the  visible  ;  that 
the  former  have  bodies,  though  these  may  be  very  subtile 
and  ethereal ;  and  it  is  a  fact,  recognized  by  the  most  ad- 
vanced modern  scholars,  that  the  greatest  minds  of  Greece 
admitted  the  objective  reality  of  apparitions  and  phan- 
toms ;  and  that  they  further  believed  that  spirits  and  preter- 
natural beings  could  communicate  with  mortals.  "The 
approaching  triumph  of  Spiritualism,"  he  says,  "  ought  to 
fill  with  joy  the  hearts  of  all  religious  persons  ;  and  j'et,  is 
it  so?  On  the  contrary,  our  professedly  orthodox  Chris- 
tians, blinded  by  their  demonpJiobia,  regret  this  prospective 
defeat  of  materialism,  the  deadly  adversary  of  all  re- 
ligions." 

I  have  translated  freely  from  Guldenstubbe's  book,  be- 
cause his  testimony  is  that  of  a  scholar,  a  philosopher,  a 
man  of  great  purity  and  integrity  of  character,  and  one 
who  at  the  same  time  got  his  proofs  of  psj^cho-phj'sical 
phenomena  independently,  without  any  medial  aid  what- 
ever, unless  we  insist  that  he  himself  must  have  been  a 
sensitive.  We  have  abundant  proof,  too,  that  these  phe- 
nomena were  not  subjective^  confined  to  his  own  inner  expe- 
rience, but  were  such  as  could  be  proved  to  any  witness 
of  sound  body  and  mind. 

His  unique  testimony,  strengthened  as  it  is  by  the  depo- 
sitions of  honorable  witnesses,  is  therefore  of  high  value 
as  corroborating  those  still  sufficient  proofs  which  we  get 
through  mediums  whose  necessities  compel  them  to  receive 
money  for  the  exhibition  of  supersensual  power,  and  who 
are  mostly  inferior  to  him  in  moral  and  mental  culture. 
Moreover,  his  full  belief  in  the  non-medial  character  of  the 
phenomena  in  his  presence  enhances  their  importance.  If 
a  medium,  he  was  an  unconscious  one.  He  was  wholly  dis- 
interested in  his  efforts  to  spread  the  truth.  He  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  subject  to  trances  or  to  states  when  his 


AN   INFERENCE    OF   SCIENCE.  57 

own  watchful  and  health}^  consciousness  was  impaired  or 
invaded.  We  hear  of  no  peculiar  sensations,  no  twitch- 
ings  or  contortions  as  the  accompaniment  of  his  manifesta- 
tions. He  rightly  claimed  that  he  was  entitled  to  the 
respectful  attention  of  all  genuine  truth-seekers  and  men 
of  science. 

The  fact  that  such  a  man  got  the  remarkable  phenom- 
enon of  direct  writing,  under  such  conditions,  and  proved 
it  conclusively  to  the  satisfaction  of  fifty  investigators, 
ought  to  carry  peculiar  weight ;  for  it  will  be  seen  from 
the  internal  evidence  of  his  own  writings  that  he  was  a 
sincere,  enlightened  thinker,  a  philosopher,  and  an  earnest 
seeker  after  the  highest  truth  that  can  interest  a  human 
being  ;  and  as  he  was  far  above  the  need  of  taking  paj^for 
any  of  his  exhibitions,  or  of  seeking  any  material  advan- 
tage therefrom,  we  must  regard  him  as  a  witness  whose 
words  are  exempt  from  any  questionable  adulteration 
whatever. 

In  his  last  pamphlet  (1879)  I.  H.  Fichte  remarks  that 
notwithstanding  his  own  age  and  his  exemption  from  the 
controversies  of  the  day,  he  feels  it  his  duty  to  bear  testi- 
monj^  to  the  great  fact  of  Spiritualism,  and  he  thinks  it  the 
duty  of  every  man,  "  with  equally  earnest  convictions,"  to 
do  the  same;  that  Spiritualism  is  "the  ratification  of  the 
belief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul  by  means  of  the  evi- 
dences of  psychical  experience."  He  refers  to  the  Slade 
phenomena  as  having  been  ' '  observed  under  conditions 
that  preclude  all  imposture  or  prestidigitation,"  and  as 
"  being  decisive  for  the  cause  of  Spiritualism  in  Ger- 
many." He  tells  us  "there  is  no  retreat  from  what  has 
been  gained,  and  that  the  advance  of  the  great  fact  is 
fully  secured."  * 

*  In  his  work  RealiU  des  Esprits,  Guldenstubbe  epeaks  of  "the  tendency  to 
naturalize  the  objective  miracles  of  the  Bible,  and  to  sacrifice  them  to  the  pre- 
tended miracles,  moral  and  subjective,  of  the  regeneration  of  humanity  according 


58  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

Fichte  anticipates  the  greatest  possible  benefit  to  the 
cause  of  moralitj^  and  religion  from  a  knowledge  of  immor- 
tality, and  writes:  "The  proof  that  the  future  state  is  a 
continuation  of  the  present,  and  to  be  affected  by  all  earthly 
experiences,  and  by  our  fundamental  sentiments  and  affec- 
tions while  here,  whether  pleasant  or  grievous,  empowers 
us  to  meet  the  moral  obligations  of  life,  entirel}^  abstracted 
from  considerations  of  future  reward  or  punishment.  Here, 
in  the  earth-life,  we  have  it  in  our  power  to  seize  and  shape 
our  future  destination.  Certainly  is  this  a  serious  revela- 
tion at  a  time  when  mankind  has  long  since  been  accus- 
tomed to  displace  their  care  for  the  future  from  their  daily 
routine,  as  a  consideration  not  affecting  their  interests." 

These  are  strong  words  from  the  venerable  German  sage, 
just  as  he  was  about  to  take  leave  of  the  present  stage  of 
being ;  words  that  will  not  be  unfruitful  in  influencing  the 
developments  of  future  belief. 

The  late  Sergeant  E.  W.  Cox,  a  respected  London  lawj-er 
and  judge  (1809-1879),  President  of  the  British  Psj'cho- 
logical  Society,  but  who  was  not  till  a  very  short  time 
before  his  sudden  death  a  Spiritualist  in  the  full  sense,  get 
satisfactory^  proofs  of  independent  writing  through  Henry 
Slade,  and  wrote  of  it,  August  8th,  1876  :  "  I  can  only  say 
that  I  was  in  the  full  possession  of  my  senses  ;  that  I  was 
wide  awake  ;  that  it  was  in  broad  daylight ;  that  Dr  Slade 
was  under  m}^  observation  the  whole  time,  and  could  not 
have  moved  hand  or  foot  without  being  detected  b}^  me." 

Dr.  H.  B.  Storer,  of  Boston,  Mass.,  writes,  October, 
1877,  in  a  published  letter,  that  his  own  experience  with 
Watkins  was  ' '  in  perfect  agreement  with  the  phenomenal 
and  spiritual  character  of  the  manifestations,"  described  as 
experienced  by  myself. 

to  the  limited  ideas  of  I.  H,  Fichte."  That  Fichte  should  have  been  converted 
to  a  knowledge  of  super-sensual  phenomena  by  the  man  who  had  thus  assailed 
his  earlier  philosophy,  is  creditable  to  his  candor,  as  well  as  to  the  character  of 
those  proofs  by  wliich  Guldenstubbe  wrought  his  conversion. 


AN   INFERENCE    OF   SCIENCE.  59 

Dr.  A.  S.  Haj'ward,  of  Boston,  writes,  October  31,  1877  : 

"While  at  Lake  Pleasant  camp-meeting,  I  introduced  Mr. 
Watkins  to  Dr.  Cottrell  of  Kansas.  Mr.  W.  asked  Dr.  C. 
if  he  was  a  Spiritualist.  The  repl}^  was  :  '  I  am  an  investi- 
gator.' He  then  went  to  the  tent  of  Mr.  Watkins,  and  a 
sitting  was  had  with  highly  satisfactory  results.  Two  slates 
were  placed  together,  with  a  small  bit  of  pencil  between 
them,  and  were  held  firml}^  by  Dr.  C.  Soon  the  pencil  was 
heard  writing,  and  on  opening,  the  following  message  was 
found :  '  My  dear  husband,  j'ou  may  try  to  deceive  the 
medium,  but  3'ou  cannot  deceive  your  wife.  "  You  are  a 
good  Spiritualist.'  Dr.  C.  was  one  of  the  oldest  Spiritual- 
ists in  the  country,  and  his  remark  was  merely  intended  to 
keep  the  medium  in  ignorance  of  facts  that  might  color  any 
communication  received." 

Mr.  Joseph  Beals,  of  Greenfield,  Mass.,  testifies  as 
follows : 

"  Last  3'ear  (1877)  I  procured  two  slates,  washed  them 
off*  clean,  placed  a  small  bit  of  pencil  between  them,  then 
put  screws  through  the  two  frames,  one  on  each  side,  and 
screwed  them  tightly  together.  This  was  done  in  m}^  office. 
I  then  took  them  down  to  the  American  House,  where  Mr. 
Watkins  was  stopping,  and  we  sat  down,  on  opposite  sides, 
at  a  table,  and  held  the  slates  between  us,  he  holding  one 
end  and  I  the  other.  Soon  we  heard  writing.  When  it 
was  through  I  turned  the  screws  back  and  found  three 
names  written — my  father's,  my  brother's,  and  Mrs.  A.  W. 
Blade's  ;  and  these  words  :   '  We  are  all  here.' " 

Mr.  John  Wetherbee,  of  Boston,  a  friend  and  neighbor  of 
mine,  took  two  new  slates,  and  before  he  left  the  shop  where 
he  bought  them,  bored  holes  in  the  frames,  put  between 
them  a  bit  of  slate-pencil,  tied  them  firmly  together  with 
twine,  and  sealed  the  knots.  He  then  took  the  tied  slates 
to  Watkins,  and  kept  charge  of  them,  never  permitting 
them  to  go  out  of  his  sight.  The  room  was  as  light  as  a 
clear  afternoon  sun  could  make  it.  The  slates  were  clean, 
and  the  medium  never  touched  or  saw  the  inside  of  them. 


60  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

Yet  under  these  conditions  Mr.  Wetherbee  got  a  written, 
consistent  message,  with  the  name  of  a  departed  relative 
attached.     In  his  pubhshed  account  (1877)  he  says  : 

"  I  know,  as  well  as  I  know  that  the  sun  has  shone  to- 
day, firsts  that  the  slates  were  new  and  clean ;  secondly^ 
that  no  one  in  the  room  or  out  of  the  room  (the  only  occu- 
pants being  the  medium  and  myself)  wrote  the  communi- 
cation on  the  slate ;  and,  thirdly^  that  it  must  have  been 
done  by  an  invisible,  intelligent  being  or  beings,  and  could 
not  have  been  done  in  an}^  other  conceivable  way.  I  make 
this  statement  as  strongly  as  I  know  how,  and  my  oath 
shall  be  attached  if  needed." 

Mr.  Wetherbee  reiterates  all  this  (June  5,  1880),  and 
writes  :  "I  know  I  was  awake  and  sound  in  my  mind,  and 
no  visible  being  was  doing  the  work  that  was  then  going  on 
in  the  space  between  the  two  slates  under  my  hands." 

Mr.  Joseph  Beals,  whose  personal  testimony  I  have 
already  quoted,  relates  that  Mr.  T.  T.  Timaj'enis,  a  modern 
Greek  b}'  birth,  a  teacher  of  the  Greek  language  in  the 
Collegiate  Institute,  Springfield,  Mass.,  told  him* that  he 
"  obtained  from  Watkins,  in  original  characters  of  Romaic, 
the  name  of  his  grandfather,  and  three  lines  of  Greek  words, 
correctly  spelled,  and  with  accents  and  breathings  correctly 
placed."  He  also  stated  that  his  "  grandfather's  name  was 
very  peculiar,  and  almost  unpronounceable  by  English  lips. 
The  slate  was  in  full  view  all  the  time,  and  Watkins  merely 
touched  one  corner  of  it  with  his  fingers." 

Wishing  to  confirm  this  account,  I  requested  m}*  friend 
and  correspondent,  Mrs.  Louisa  Andrews  of  Springfield, 
Mass.,  to  call  on  Mr.  Timayenis  (1878),  and  get  him  to 
verify  it,  which  he  did  most  explicitly.  He  was  not  a 
SpiritualisL,  but  he  declared  that  the  phenomenon  was 
wholly  inexplicable.  Any  one  who  has  seen  the  somewhat 
illiterate  letters  written  by  Watkins  (I  have  several  of  them) 
will  deride  the  idea  that  he  had  so  qualified  himself  in  Greek 


AN   INFERENCE    OF   SCIENCE.  61 

as  to  be  prepared  for  an  accidental  and  wholly  unexpected 
meeting  with  Mr.  Timaj'enis.  Judging  the  experiment  by 
the  principles  of  human  science,  the  Greek  message,  under 
the  conditions,  must  have  been  written  by  an  intelligence 
and  a  power  outside  of  the  medium's  own  physical  organism. 

The  testimony  of  my  brother,  James  Otis  Sargent,  will 
be  found  in  the  volume  entitled  "  Psj^chographj^,"  published 
in  London  in  1878.  The  sitting  took  i^lace  September  19, 
1877.  The  witness  says:  ....  "The  slates  were  now 
cleaned  again,  the  bit  of  f)encil  was  placed  between  them, 
and  I  held  them  at  arm's  length,  Watkins  not  touching 
them  or  me.  On  opening  them  I  found  a  short  communi- 
cation, signed  with  another  of  the  names  I  had  written. 
....  Here  the  seance  ended.  It  took  place  in  broad  da^^- 
light.  I  watched  every  movement  of  the  medium,  and  there 
was  no  possibility  of  fraud."  On  this  occasion  Watkins 
read  the  names,  &c.  on  five  paper  pellets,  which  had  been 
written  on  and  folded  while  he  was  out  of  the  room  —  doing 
this  while  my  brother  held  the  pellets,  one  hy  one,  tightl}^ 
grasped  in  his  hand. 

There  was  a  communication  in  the  Banner  of  Light  of 
June  19,  1880,  from  a  person  known  to  the  editor,  the 
substance  of  which  may  be  thus  related  : — A.  B.,  who  had 
never  been  in  Boston  before,  had  never  seen  Watkins,  nor 
had  Watkins  seen  him,  went  to  the  medium's  rooms,  2 
Lovering  Place,  Boston,  early  in  June,  and  asked  for  a 
sitting.  Watkins  went  out  of  the  room,  and  A.  B.  wrote 
six  questions  on  little  slips  of  paper  belonging  to  himself, 
which  he  rolled  into  small  ballots  as  tightlj^  as  possible,  and 
placed  on  the  table.  Among  them  he  placed  a  ballot  on 
which  was  a  question  written  by  an  absent  friend  —  both 
the  question  and  the  answer  to  it  being  unknown  to  A.  B. 
This  ballot  A.  B.  had  marked. 

Watkins  comes  in,  does  not  once  touch  the  ballots,  but 
tells  A.  B.  to  mix  them  up,  and  then  point  to  them  slowly. 


62  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

This  he  did  ;  and  at  the  touch  of  the  fourth  ballot,  which 
was  the  marked  one,  Watkins  tells  him  to  take  it  up,  which 
A.  B.  does,  closing  his  hand  so  that  the  medium  shall  not 
see  the  ballot.  Watkins  walks  about  the  room,  looking 
ver}'  flushed  and  excited,  and  at  last  cries  out  "Pin-cushion." 
A  note  is  made  of  this  by  A.  B.,  and  there  is  a  long  pause. 
Then  Watkins,  looking  dazed  and  confused,  saj's,  "They 
speak  of  a  Katharine."  This  was  the  name  of  A.  B.'s 
friend  who  had  written  the  question.  Another  long  pause, 
and  then,  with  a  pleased,  bright  expression,  Watkins  ex- 
claims, "Yes,  I  remember  now;  it  was  something  I  made 
for  3^ou."  Here  he  stopped,  seemed  to  be  trying  to  grasp 
some  impression,  and  at  last  said,  "It  was  something  to 
go  round  the  neck  ;  I  don't  know  what  you  call  it  —  a  tie 
or  something." 

A.  B.  did  not  open  the  ballot,  but  told  him  that  he  could 
not  say  whether  this  was  correct  or  not,  but  would  let  him 
know.  When  A.  B.  saw  his  friend  he  found  that  the  ques- 
.tion  was,  "  Where  is  the  pinrcushion  you  made  me  at  Otter 
River,  and  what  else  did  3"ou  make  me  ?  "  The  answer  to 
the  second  part  of  this  question  was  what  the  medium  had 
given,  "  Necktie." 

The  remarkable  points  in  this  experiment  are  these  :  The 
ballot,  untouched  by  the  medium,  contained  a  question  ad- 
dressed by  an  absent  friend  of  A.  B.  to  some  departed 
acquaintance,  and  both  the  question  and  the  answer  to  it 
were  unknown  to  A.  B.  Let  us  set  aside  as  not  pertinent 
to  our  present  inquiry  the  remarkable  clairvoj'ant  power 
manifested  by  Watkins,  of  being  able  to  read  the  inscrip- 
tion on  a  tightly  roUed-up  ballot,  (which  he  had  never 
touched,  and  which  was  not  written  on  in  his  presence,)  so 
that  he  could  give  the  leading  word  on  it,  "  Pin-cushion." 
But  by  what  conceivable  power  did  he  get  at  the  second 
part  of  the  answer,  where  the  word  was  not  written  on  the 
ballot,  and  where  it  was  not  in  the  mind  of  A.  B.,  who  was 


AN   INFERENCE   OF  SCIENCE.  63 

not  the  person  to  whom  his  friend's  question  seems  to  havd 
been  addressed? 

Here  is  tlie  puzzle.  If  there  was  mind-reading,  then 
some  transcendent  power  in  Watkins  must  have  gone  a 
journey  of  miles  to  the  Katharine  who  wrote  the  question, 
and  got  out  of  her  mind  the  word  "  tie,"  or  "  necktie,"  or 
"something  to  go  round  the  neck."  This  is  one  way  of 
solving  the  mystery.  Another  solution  is,  that  the  deceased 
individual,  to  whom  the  question  was  .addressed,  was,  in 
her  capacity  of  spirit,  enabled  to  impress  corresponding 
spiritual  faculties  in  Watkins  with  the  needed  words,  until 
his  normal  consciousness  could  grasp  them  and  prompt  their 
utterance.  Which  is  the  easier  solution  of  the  two  ?  Or  are 
they  not  both  equally  insoluble  ? 

While  at  Lake  Pleasant,  Mass.  (August  25th,  1877), 
Watkins  submitted  his  mediumship  to  a  crucial  testing  on 
the  public  platform.  Two  new  slates  were  bought  by  Mr. 
Joseph  Beals.  A  committee  of  three,  two  of  them  not 
believers,  were  chosen  by  the  audience  for  the  test.  They 
were  Eben  Riple}^,  Daniel  D.  Wiley,  and  F.  L.  Sargent. 
These  gentlemen,  after  making  a  careful  examination  of 
the  slates  brought  by  Mr.  Beals,  between  which  a  bit  of 
slate-pencil  was  placed,  held  them  by  one  end,  while  Watkins 
held  them  hj  the  other.  It  was  broad  daylight.  Soon  the 
scratch  of  a  pencil  was  heard,  and  on  taking  off  the  top 
slate  the  committee  found  that  a  message  of  forty-seven 
words  had  been  written  on  the  lower  surface.  The3^  united 
in  declaring  that  they  could  see  no  possible  chance  for  any 
deception  in  the  manifestation ;  that  there  was  no  possi- 
bility of  a  substitution  of  slates,  or  of  chemical  writing. 
At  Mr.  Beals's  request  the}^  all  wrote  their  names  on  the 
slate,  and  he  had  it  (1879)  in  his  keeping.  The  communi- 
cation got  is  as  follows  :  ' '  My  dear  friends  :  As  we  approach 
the  natural  from  our  spiritual  homes,  we  find  our  old  love 
for  our  friends  is  still  strong  within  us,  for  father,  mother, 


64  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

brother,  sister.  God  and  the  angel-world  bless  all,  is  the 
wish  of  this  control.     Mrs.  A.  W.  Slade." 

Mr.  Giles  B.  Stebbins,  of  Detroit,  a  man  ever}-  way 
estimable,  vigilant,  and  judicial  in  his  investigations,  got  a 
remarkable  communication  through  independent  writing  in 
Chicago,  December,  1878, — Mrs.  Simpson,  a  French  woman 
from  New  Orleans,  imperfectlj^  acquainted  with  the  English 
language,  being  the  medium.  She  had  met  Mr.  Stebbins 
only  the  night  before,  and  knew  nothing  of  him  or  his 
family ;  jet  there  came  to  him  this  message,  signed  with 
the  name  of  his  departed  uncle,  Calvin  Stebbins,  of  Wil- 
braham,  Mass.:  "I  find  no  hell  or  bab^-'s  skulls,  as  we 
used  to  talk  of.  I  find  over  here  common  sense  and  justice. 
Each  man  makes  his  own  destiny.  God  has  not  destined 
an}'  one  to  heaven  or  hell.  Ah  !  Giles,  the  abyss  is  bridged, 
and  we  are  fortif)-ing  the  arches  under  the  bridge  daily, 
daily." 

All  this  was  far  above  the  capacity  of  the  medium,  and 
so  characteristic  that  it  is  impossible  for  Mr.  Stebbins  to  be- 
lieve that  it  could  have  come  from  her  unassisted  mind. 
He  got  writing  while  he  himself  held  the  slate  under  the 
table,  the  medium  merely  touching  the  end  which  projected 
out,  so  that  her  hand  was  in  full  sight. 

The  onl}^  wa}^  to  evade  the  overwhelming  testimony  to 
the  great  fact  of  pneumatography  is  to  deu}^  it  flatly,  and 
to  maintain,  as  some  scientific  specialists  do,  that  no  amount 
of  human  testimon}'  can  establish  an  occurrence  so  extraor- 
dinary. This  is  the  position  held  hy  Messrs.  Carpenter, 
Lankester,  Beard,  Hammond,  Youmans,  and  others,  claim- 
ing to  be  men  of  science.  Dismissing  such  a  fact  as  im- 
possible in  the  nature  of  things,  they  would  stamp  it  out  as 
no  proper  subject  for  investigation,  but  onh^  one  for  wrath- 
ful and  contemptuous  rejection  by  all  men  of  science. 

"  We  are  not  bound  to  examine  into  facts  so  diametri- 
calty  opposed  to  our  notions  of  the  possible  in  nature,"  is 


AN   INFERENCE    OF   SCIENCE.  65 

the  argument  by  wliich  they  would  discredit  the  attested 
phenomenon  before  they  have  taken  the  trouble  to  enter 
upon  a  patient,  practical  studj^  of  its  realitj-.  "Human 
testimony  is  worth  nothing  in  such  a  case,"  says  Dr  George 
M.  Beard.  "We  must  not  believe  our  senses  in  such  a 
case,"  says  Dr.  W.  B.  Carpenter. 

It  is  not  the  wary  man  of  science  who  mocks  and  scolds 
at  any  well-attested  phenomenon.  He  may  be  a  scientific 
expert  in  some  one  or  two  departments  ;  but  he  knows  that 
this  does  not  qualif}^  him  to  assume  dictatorshi]3  in  regard 
to  facts  of  which  he  has  had  little  or  no  experience,  and 
which  perhaps  his  prejudices  forbid  him  to  examine.  Be- 
cause the  false  may  be  mixed  up  with  the  true,  the  absurd 
with  the  genuine,  the  bad  with  the  good,  —  the  unpleasant 
fact  does  not  justif}^  the  philosopher  in  spurning  the  whole 
as  valueless.  "To  abandon  these  spiritual  phenomena  to 
credulity,"  says  Victor  Hugo,  "is  to  commit  a  treason 
against  human  reason.  Nevertheless  we  see  them  always 
rejected,  and  alwa3's  reappearmg.  The^^  date  not  their 
advent  from  yesterday." 

In  regard  to  the  jjhenomenon  of  independent  writing,  we 
could  accumulate  testimony  till  it  should  fill  volumes  as 
capacious  as  the  British  Cyclopaedia  ;  but  those  who  do  not 
find  reasons  in  what  we  have  adduced  for  considering  the 
subject  as  at  least  worthy  of  being  investigated  before  it  is 
condemned,  would  not  be  moved  from  their  position  b}^  any 
amount  of  testimou}^,  however  conclusive. 

In  a  little  volume  entitled  "  Psychography,  by  M.  A. 
Oxon,"  published  in  London  in  1878,  and  for  sale  in  Bos- 
ton and  Chicago,  the  sincere  inquirer  will  find  an  excellent 
summary  of  evidence  establishing  the  phenomenon.  Not 
the  least  valuable  is  that  of  Samuel  Bellachini,  the  court 
conjurer  at  Berhn,  given  in  the  form  of  an  aflSdavit  before 
Gustav  Haagen,  a  public  notary, December  6,  1877,  and  en- 
tered in  his  register  under  the  number  482 .  In  this  document 
5 


66  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

Bellachini  declares  that  the  phenomenal  occurrences  in 
Slade's  presence  have  been  thoroughly  examined  by  him 
"  with  the  minutest  observation  and  investigation  of  the 
surroundings,  including  the  table."  He  says:  "I  have 
not,  in  the  smallest  instance,  found  an3'thing  to  be  pro- 
duced by  means  of  prestidigitative  manifestations,  or  by 
mechanical  apparatus  ;  "  and  he  declares  that  ' '  an}^  expla- 
nation of  the  experiments  which  took  place,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances and  conditions  then  obtaining,  b}^  an}'  reference 
to  prestidigitation,  to  be  absolute^  impossible." 

Now  if  there  is  any  man  who  can  be  called  an  "expert" 
in  the  matter  of  detecting  fraud  in  an  experiment  made  in 
broadest  daylight,  involving  the  question  of  direct  writing, 
independent  of  any  human  delusion  or  trick,  it  must  be  the 
experienced  juggler.  It  is  difficult  to  see  how  a  specialist 
in  any  of  the  exact  sciences  is  better  qualified  to  judge  of 
the  genuineness  of  the  phenomenon  than  an}^  man  of  good 
common  sense,  in  the  fall  possession  of  all  his  faculties, 
vigilant  and  calm.  A  chemist,  it  is  true,  might  find  out 
whether  Siuj  chemical  preparation  had  been  used  on  the 
slate  ;  but  the  possibility-  of  such  a  trick  is  ruled  out  when 
we  use  (as  I  have  repeatedlj^  done)  our  own  slates,  fastened 
together  while  the  inner  surfaces  cannot  be  touched  b}^  the 
medium,  and  the  slates  are  never  for  a  moment  out  of  the 
sight  of  the  witness. 

One  can  hardly  realize,  until  he  sees  it,  the  conclusive- 
ness of  the  manifestation  as  a  proof  of  direct  writing  by 
some  ps3^chical  or  spiritual  power,  apart  from  au}^  visible 
organism,  exercising  intelligent  force.  What  escape  is 
there  from  the  conclusion?  We  must  either  assume  that 
there  is  an  undiscovered  force  emitted  b}''  the  human  or- 
ganism, and  performing  intelligent  acts  independently  of 
the  normal  consciousness,  or  we  are  thrown  back  upon  the 
h3'pothesis  of  independent  spirit  action. 

Dr.  George  Wyld,  of  London,  in  his   "  Theosoph}'  and 


AN   INFERENCE    OF   SCIENCE.  67 

the  Higher  Life"  (Trtibner  &  Co.,  1880),  remarks  :  ^' With 
regard  to  slate-writing,  there  is  no  order  of  spiritual  phe- 
nomena which  impresses  me  more  powerfnllj^  Slade  and 
his  slate-writmg  were  to  me  objects  of  absorbing  interest. 
All  was  done  in  the  light  and  above-board.  The  evidence 
that  the  writing  was  produced  by  a  spiritual  intelligence, 
without  the  intervention  of  human  hands,  w^as  overwhelm- 
ing ;  and  in  his  presence  the  materialism  of  three  thou- 
sand years  was  refuted  in  five  minutes.  When,  therefore, 
brutal  and  intolerant  ignorance  seized  Slade,  and  dragged 
him  into  a  police  court,  I  felt  prepared  to  run  any  risk,  and 
incur  any  responsibilit}^  in  his  defence." 

Dr.  Wyld  is  of  opinion  that  the  ' '  psj'chic  force  "  pro- 
ducing the  phenomena  can  be  exercised  b}^  some  human 
beings  in  the  bod}^  but  that  much  more  easil}^  and  fre- 
quently the  souls  of  departed  human  beings  can  exercise 
the  same  force.  He  held  the  theory  at  one  time  that  the 
unconscious  spirit  of  the  medium  may  often  produce  the 
direct  writing ;  but  in  relation  to  this  question  he  finally 
says  :  "I  have  come  much  more  round  to  the  theory  that 
most  of  the  mediumistic  phenomena  are  produced  by  for- 
eign spirits."  This  is  generally  the  conclusion  of  those 
who  have  had  the  largest  and  longest  experience  in  stud}'- 
ing  and  testing  the  phenomena. 

It  is  a  sign  of  the  advancing  intelligence  of  the  times 
that  Dr.  Wy]d  is  able  to  say  (1880)  in  regard  to  his  un- 
popular investigations:  "For  one  friend  I  have  lost,  I 
have  gained  twenty  better  friends,  and  even  my  worldly 
prosperity  has  been  greatty  thereby  increased." 


68  FACTS  AGAINST   THEORIES. 


CHAPTER  II. 

A     SCIENTIFIC     BASIS. FURTHER      TESTIMONY.  SPIRITUAL 

PROOFS. THE    MATERIALISTIC    THEORY    CONTRADICTED    BY 

FACTS. 

The  theory  of  the  Materialist  is,  that  the  aggregation  of 
certain  material  molecules,  developing  into  an  organism,  is 
sufficient  to  explain  the  phenomena  of  life  and  mind  ;  that 
there  is  no  more  of  mystery  in  the  evolution  of  the  phe- 
nomenon man  from  a  few  particles  of  matter  hardh^  visible 
with  the  aid  of  a  microscope,  and  undistinguishable  from 
the  little  glutinous  speck  that  grows  into  a  nettle  or  a  tad- 
pole, —  than  there  is  in  the  evolution  of  an  oak-tree  from 
an  acorn.     And  this  last  half  of  the  assertion  may  be  true. 

Tyndall,  who  is  not  in  the  habit  of  giving  comfort  to 
Spiritualists,  has  the  candor  to  admit  that  the  gap  between 
molecules  and  the  phenomena  of  mind  is  not  bridged  by 
any  theory  of  materialism.  While  he  believes  that  "  mat- 
ter contains  within  itself  the  promise  and  potency  of  all 
terrestrial  life,"  he  prudently  adds,  '•'•  How  it  came  to  have 
this  poiver^  is  a  question  on  which  I  never  ventured  an 
opinion." 

Thus  he  would  seem  to  favor  the  ancient  doctrine  of  the 
Hylozoists,  that  life  and  matter  are  inseparable  :  a  doctrine 
that  has  been  held  in  various  forms.  It  crops  out  in  "  the 
ultimate  particles,  material  and  having  life,"  of  Straton  of 
Lampsacus  ;  in  the  theories  of  the  followers  of  Plotinus ; 
in  the  assertion  of  Spinoza  that  all  things  are  alive  in  dif- 


SPIRITUAL    PROOFS.  69 

ferent  degrees  ;  in  the  raonadology  of  Leibnitz  ;  and  in  the 
theoiy  of  divine  influx  of  Swedenborg.  So  we  find  T3'n- 
dall  in  good  companj^ ;  and  he  must  not  be  classed  with 
Huxley,  who,  while  he  admits  that  his  organism  has  "■  cer- 
tain mental  functions,"  believes  they  are  "dependent  on 
its  molecular  composition,  and  come  to  an  end "  when  he 
dies. 

That  an  intelligence,  whether  originating  in  this  sphere 
of  being  or  coming  from  some  other,  can  exist  and  mani- 
fest life  independently  of  a  brain  and  nervous  system,  is 
what  materialism,  claiming  to  represent  the  most  advanced 
science  of  the  da3^  repudiates  as  an  impossibility.  But 
Spiritualism,  as  I  have  shown,  gives  direct  evidence  that 
intelligence  can  clearly  manifest  itself  independently  of  anj^ 
visible  organism.  In  the  words  of  the  Rev.  11.  R.  Plaweis 
of  England  :  "It  offers  to  produce  intelligence  of  some 
kind  acting  upon  matter,  and  3'et  unconnected  with  a  brain 
and  nervous  system.  If  this  could  be  proved,  the  mate- 
rialist argument  would  at  once  fall ;  for  if  intelligence  sim- 
ilar to  ours  exists,  and  can  operate  outside  the  usual  or- 
ganized conditions,  our  souls  may  —  we  do  not  say  must — ■ 
do  the  same  :  —  God  is  conceivable,  and  intelligence  ceases 
to  be  the  mere  product  of  blind  force  and  matter  special I3' 
organized." 

The  facts  I  have  verified  by  my  experience  have  satisfied 
me  that  it  has  been  proved  that  an  intelligence  operating  at 
a  distance  of  twenty-two  feet  from  any  known  medium, 
and  of  more  than  fifteen  feet  from  an3^  other  human  being, 
msij  produce  a  written  message  on  a  slate.  The  theor}' 
that  there  are  latent  powers  in  the  himian  subject  that,  un- 
consciousl}^  to  him,  can  accomplish  such  an  efi'ect,  involves 
the  theor}^  that  there  are  powders  independent  of  material 
organs,  and  which  are  not  dependent  on  a  visible  material 
body  for  their  potential  activity.  So  that  which-ever  theory 
may  prevail,  the  cause  of  Spiritualism  is  secure. 


70  FACTS   AGAINST   THEORIES. 

In  the  Times  of  Chicago,  July,  1880,  there  is  a  graphic 
account  of  his  experiences  by  Professor  V.  B.  Denslow,  not 
a  Spiritualist,  but  who  had  four  sittings  in  that  city  with 
Henry  Slacle,  and  one  or  two  with  Mrs.  Simpson.  From  it 
I  quote  the  following  passages  : 

"  I  next  sat  with  Mr.  Slade  at  his  own  rooms.  We  en- 
tered the  back  parlor,  no  other  person  being  in  the  room, 
and  the  doors  w^ere  closed.  I  examined  the  carpet,  table, 
aud  wall,  all  of  wdiich  were  ordinary  and  honest.  I  did  not 
search  Slade's  pockets,  nor,  as  the  letter  in  the  New  York 
Nation  recommended,  did  I  look  for  concealed  magnets 
thrust  under  his  skin.  The  sequel  will  show  that  such  pre- 
cautions on  m}'  part  would  have  been  as  futile  as  a  means 
of  discovering  the  mode  in  which  the  slate-writing  was 
done,  as  the  thrusting  of  '  magnets '  into  or  under  one's 
skhi  would  be  as  a  means  of  writing  between  two  slates. 
Nor  is  it  material  whether  there  was  one  slate  or  fifty  slates 
in  the  room,  as,  in  the  mode  in  which  the  writing  w^as  done, 
the  theory  of  substitution  of  slates  cuts  no  figure.  But 
according  to  my  best  observation  the  room  contained  but 
two  slates  at  the  time,  both  of  which  lay  on  the  table,  and 
both  of  which  I  examined  on  both  sides  at  the  outset,  and 
they  contained  no  writing.  Nor  were  there  any  springs 
about  the  slates  by  which,  as  suggested  by  one  imaginative 
'  spirit  exposer '  in  California,  a  roll  of  muslin  indistin- 
guishable from  the  surface  of  the  slate  was  unfurled  and 
spread  over  the  slate.  All  such  complicated  and  imprac- 
ti(!able  devices  only  bring  out  into  strong  contrast  the 
simplicity'  3'et  certainty  of  the  occult  power  which  was  now 
to  perform  the  writing." 

Professor  Denslow  got  the  slate-writing  in  a  way  which 
he  f\}\\y  describes,  and  wdiich  satisfied  him  as  a  proof  that 
slate-writing  could  be  done  in  Slade's  presence  "  without 
any  contact  between  any  living  person  and  the  pencil  that 
wrote."     He  sa3's  : 

"I  have  read,  with  a  sincere  desire  to  get  some  light 
from  it,  Mr.  Ho  wells'  careful  analysis  in  '  The  Undiscovered 
Countr}' ,'  of  the  various  stages  of  lunacy  which  induced  his 
'  Dr.  Boynton '  to  look  for  spirit  manifestations  where  they 


SPIRITUAL   PROOFS.  71 

were  not  to  be  found,  but  I  do  not  see  that  thej"  shed  any 
light  whatever  on  a  case  where  slate-writing  is  cleaih"  done 
without  the  possibility  of  phj'sical  contact  between  any 
living  person  and  the  pencil.  I  have  also  read  Dr.  George 
M.  Beard's  efforts  to  connect  the  word  '  hysteria '  with 
these  singular  phenomena,  but  I  fail  to  see  wherein  the}' 
appl}'  to  such  a  case.  Mj^  health  was  never  so  good,  and 
m}^  mind  never  more  calm,  than  when  observing  these 
phenomena.  I  am  as  free  from  hysteria  as  Dr.  Beard,  and 
from  lunacy  as  Mr.  Howells,  and  so  ^n  like  manner  were 
each  and  all  of  the  twentj"  ladies  and  gentlemen  who  at 
various  times  have  witnessed  these  phenomena  in  my  pres- 
ence, or  have  described  to  me  their  nature  immediately 
afterward.  So  far,  I  have  seen  as  much  intelligence,  as 
much  skepticism,  as  much  calm,  healthy  acumen,  learning, 
and  culture,  as  much  familiarity  with  scientific  methods  and 
with  sleight-of-hand,  as  the  most  querulous  could  wish,  or 
as  either  Beard  or  Howells  possesses,  brought  to  bear  on 
the  simple  problem,  which  it  would  seem  a  child  ought  to 
be  able  to  solve,  of  detecting  whether  an}^  human  being  was 
in  ph3'sical  contact  with  the  pencil  v/hen  it  wrote.     They 

all  sa}^  no  such  contact  was  possible 

' '  Independent  slate-writing  has  never  been  a  character- 
istic of  hysterics.  Hysterical  persons  may  believe  they  see 
what  they  do  not  see,  but  the  principle  of  illusion  has  no 
application  in  this  case,  as  fifty  persons  in  the  room  at  the 
time  would  all  have  seen  the  writing  alike  when  it  had  been 
done,  and  all  would  have  heard  the  pencil  doing  it.  I  did 
not  see  the  pencil  make  its  mark,  and  therefore  there  is  no 
fact  in. the  entire  phenomena  to  which  the  principle  of  illu- 
sion can  apply.  The  use  of  the  word  hysteria^  therefore, 
where  no  illusion  of  the  senses  is  alleged,  is  merel}^  the 
impudence  of  ignorance.  It  explains  nothing,  and  desig- 
nates nothing.  When  I  examined  the  slates  before  the 
writing,  no  illusion  theorj^  applies,  because  nothing  had  3"et 
occurred.  When  I  examined  them  after  the  writing  was 
over,  no  illusion  theory  applies,  since  the  writing  was 
undoubtedly  there,  and  an}^  one  of  a  million  persons,  if 
they  saw  the  slate  at  all,  would  have  seen  and  read  it  alike. 
The  only  part  of  the  fact  in  relation  to  which  the  illusion 
theory  can  apply  is,  that  I  suppose  I  held  the  slate-surface, 
where  physical  contact  with  the  pencil  on  the  part  of  some 
human  writer  would  be  impossible,  when,  in  reality,  I  did 


72  FACTS  AGAINST   THEORIES. 

not.  But  Tvhat  is  so  easy  as  to  hold  a  slate  in  broad  day- 
light, where  no  human  being  can  write  on  it,  especially  in 
a  room  where  there  is  only  one  other  person.  To  suppose 
that  I  cannot  do  that,  or  that  I  cannot  know  decisively 
when  I  do  or  do  not  so  hold  it,  is  part  of  the  sheer  insamt}^ 
of  impudence.  It  indicates  that  those  who  so  assert  have 
become  infidels  to  the  integrity  of  the  human  intellect,  and 
have  lost  their  power  to  remain  loyal  to  the  evidences  of 
the  senses,  —  an  assertion  which  involves  no  less  than  an 
absolute  abdication  of  the  throne  of  human  reason. 

"  Nor  does  the  theor}^  of  sleight-of-hand  apph',  because 
in  all  cases  of  sleight-of-hand  the  hand  of  the  operator  is  in 
communication  with  the  thing  done,  and  a  chief  share  of 
the  difficult}^  is  created  by  keeping  this  magical  hand  in 
such  a  state  of  swift  and  diversified  motion  that  the  observer 
could  not  follow  it.  In  this  case,  however,  both  of  Slade's 
hands  were  motionless,  plainl}^  in  sight.  A  sleight-of-hand 
man  who  never  uses  his  hands,  but  whose  hands  lie  flat  on 
a  table  while  ever3'thing  is  doing,  would,  indeed,  be  a 
wonder,  unless  he  had  an  assistant,  and  Slade  had  none. 

"  What  I  had  thus  far  seen  with  Slade  did  not  differ  es- 
sentially from  what  I  had  already  seen  with  Mrs.  Simpson 
who  resides  permanentl}^  in  this  city,  except  that  Mrs. 
Simpson  reads  easilj*  any  question  her  visitor  ma}^  write  on 
the  slate,  without  having  that  visual  access  to  the  slate 
which  would  be  necessaiy  to  enable  an  ordinar}-  person  to 
read  it.     This,  Slade  tells  me,  he  does  not. 

"In  another  respect,  Mrs.  Simpson's  slate-writing  is 
characterized  by  an  incident  that  does  not  appear  in  Slade's. 
This  is  the  fact  that  the  bit  of  pencil  is  placed  on  a  slate, 
and  a  goblet  filled  with  water  is  placed  over  it,  so  that 
apparentl}^  the  pencil  should  be  confined  in  its  writing 
within  the  hollow  space  left  by  the  concave  bottom  of  the 
goblet,  which  space  would  be  about  the  size  of  a  silver 
dollar.  But  on  placing  the  slate  underneath  the  table,  Mrs. 
Simpson  holding  one  side  of  the  slate  and  the  observer  the 
other,  so  that  the  top  of  the  goblet  rests  steadily  and  firmh^ 
against  the  under  side  of  the  table,  the  pencil  is  heard  to 
write  in  long  lines  across  the  slate,  as  freely  as  if  the  goblet 
were  not  there,  and  on  removing  slate  and  goblet  from  under 
the  table,  without  the  possibility  that  either  could  have 
changed  its  relative  position  during  the  operation,  or  could 
have  been  removed  by  so  much  as  a  hair's-brearlth  from 


SPIRITUAL   PROOFS.  73 

each  other,  the  writing  is  found  to  begin  on  the  slate  at  a 
-point  outside  the  space  covered  b}'  the  goblet,  to  cross  the 
slate  again  and  again  in  half  a  dozen  lines,  none  of  which 
pa}-  any  regard  to  the  physical  obstacle  afforded  by  the  solid 
contact  of  the  goblet  with  the  slate,  so  that  each  line  begins 
to  the  left  of  where  the  goblet  stands,  passes  directly  under 
it  with  unbroken  writing,  and  reappears  at  the  right  of  the 
goblet  as  if  the  goblet  had  not  been  there. 

"  When  I  saw  this  with  Mrs.  Simpson,  the  conditions  pre- 
cluded deceit  or  sleight-of-hand  as  absolutelj'  as  in  the  case 
of  Slade.  But  one  other  person  was  in  the  room,  and  he 
sat  some  twelve  feet  awa}-.  I  had  examined  the  carpets 
for  trap-doors,  and  think  I  am  competent  to  say  there  were 
none,  and  had  there  been  twenty  they  would  have  been  of 
no  service,  as  I  held  the  goblet  and  slate  so  firml}--  and 
steadil}^  while  under  the  table,  that  I  knew  that  neither 
table,  slate,  nor  goblet  moved  relatively  to  each  other  while 
the  writing  was  being  done.  Not  only  was  the  writing  done 
without  possibility  of  any  human  person  being  in  contact 
with  the  pencil  while  it  was  doing,  but  it  was  done  by  some 
agency  which  disregarded  solid  glass  as  an  obstacle,  and 
wrote  as  easily  on  a  surface  covered  with  it  as  on  a  bare 
surface.  This,  of  course,  raises  the  question  wh}'  it  should 
have  used  the  pencil  at  all ;  but  I  am  not  answering  ques- 
tions, but  asking  them.  Moreover,  at  the  end  of  the 
writing  the  bit  of  pencil  was  neither  in  the  hollow  space  in 
which  it  had  been  placed  underneath  the  goblet,  nor  was  it 
anywhere  on  the  slate ;  but  it  was  at  the  bottom  of  the 
water  on  the  inside  of  the  goblet,  and  was  worn  by  the 
writing  it  appeared  to  have  done.  The  physically  impos- 
sible fact,  therefore,  of  passing  one  solid  substance  directly 
through  another,  without  violence  to  either,  occurred  some 
six  or  eight  times  within  ten  minutes. 

"After  I  had  been  forty  minutes  in  the  room,  and  knew 
that  neither  when  I  entered,  nor  since,  had  there  been  any 
other  flowers  in  the  room  than  a  growing  fuchsia  near  the 
door,  Mrs.  Simpson  undertook  to  produce  a  flower.  Placing 
the  goblet  of  water  on  the  slate,  in  like  manner  as  was  done 
for  the  slate-writing,  but  with  no  pencil,  after,  perhaps,  five 
minutes  of  apparent  strong  electro-nervous  excitement  in 
the  arm  which  was  holding  her  side  of  the  slate,  Mrs.  Simp- 
son told  me  to  withdraw  the  goblet  from  under  the  table, 


74  FACTS   AGAINST   THEORIES. 

and  in  the  act  of  doing  so,  the  fragrance  of  the  hyacinth 
filled  the  room,  and  inside  the  goblet  was  a  fresh,  rich, 
unstained  h3'acinth  flower  of  twenty-two  petals,  just  plucked 
from  the  stem,  and  which  I  took  home  with  me  and  kept 
till  it  withered  —  perhaps  a  week. 

"  Prior  to  my  third  session  with  Slade,  I  was  present  at 
the  residence  of  Colonel  Bundy,  when  some  sixteen  persons 
of  indisputable  intelligence  and  some  of  them  of  special 
critical  power,  including  Judge  Barnum  and  Mrs.  Barnum, 
Dr.  Jewell,  of  Evanston,  editor  of  the  best  reputed  journal 
of  nervous  diseases  in  this  countr}^  and  one  of  the  foremost 
medical  journals  of  the  world  ;  Mr.  and  Mrs.  W.  K.  Starett, 
of  The  Western  3fagazine,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Perry,  Mr.  Gage, 
Mrs.  Willard,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Dickson,  and  several  others, 
all  witnessed  substantlallj'  the  same  method  of  slate-writing 
I  have  described,  and  none  of  whom  were  able  to  detect  any 
mode  b}^  which  any  living  person  could  have  communicated 
the  moving  force  of  the  pencil  which  did  the  writing.  Of 
course,  in  all  these  slate-writings  there  is  no  concealment, 
no  turning  down  of  lights,  and  the  slates  are  alwaj^s  in  the 
hands  of  the  observers,  and  not  of  Slade." 

After  describing  with  scientific  precision  some  partial 
experiments  in  materiahzation  with  Slade,  Professor  Dens- 
low  remarks : 

' '  I  think  I  have  sufficient  acquaintance  with  the  instru- 
mentalities b}^  which  spectral  and  illusory  effects  are  me- 
chanicall}'  produced,  to  say  that  the  use  of  the  means  essen- 
tial to  the  production  of  these  effects  were  in  this  case  simply 
impossible,  and  that  were  they  possible,  such  other  effects 
when  produced  bear  virtuall}'  no  resemblance  whatever  to 
the  effects  which  I  saw." 

In  conclusion,  he  remarks  frankly  and  forcibly : 

"  Here  are  facts  which,  whatever  their  nature,  whether 
they  consist  in  proofs  of  stupendous  psj'chological  influence 
of  one  human  mind  over  others,  or  whether  they  are  a  lusus 
natur(£^  derivable  from  electric  influence,  or  whether  they 
are  a  window  opening  from  our  earthty  life  into  a  spirit- 
world,  deserve  to  be  candidl}^  stated  \)Y  all  who  have  seen 
them.     Even  if  they  are  impositions  on  the  human  mind,  it 


SPIRITUAL   PROOFS.  75 

is  the  duty  of  scientific  men  to  study  the  laws  governing 
the  production  of  such  impositions,  and  to  prove  the  fact 
by  producing  the  same  phenomena  themselves,  coupled  with 
proof  that  they  do  not  produce  them  by  spirit  agency.  The 
more  cautious  we  are  in  building  theories  upon  these  phe- 
nomena, and  the  more  patient  we  are  in  developing  the 
phenomena  themselves  until  they  evolve  their  own  theories 
irresistibly,  the  greater  will  be  the  value  both  of  our  facts 
and  theories  when  obtained.  As  for  theories,  it  wdll  be 
time  enough  for  me  to  state  mine  when  I  have  formed  one." 

Guldenstubbe  is  not  too  sanguine  when  he  declares  that 
the  proof  by  direct  writing  is  the  crowning  evidence  of  the 
existence  and  activity  of  a  principle  assuring  us  that  there 
is  not  only  a  spirit  in  man,  using  his  material  organism, 
but  a  spirit  outside  of  him  using  some  invisible  organism  or 
instrument  for  producing  effects  upon  matter.  ' '  These 
immaterial  beings,"  you  say,  "  cannot  move  matter."  But 
how  do  we  know  that  they  are  in  all  respects  immaterial  ? 
Are  there  not  finer  forces  and  finer  grades  of  matter  than 
we  can  distinguish  by  the  unaided  bodily  senses  ?  Photog- 
raphy proves  the  fact  even  to  the  materialist.  And  how 
do  we  know  that  what  is  immaterial  to  our  coarse  mortal 
senses,  is  immaterial  to  one  in  whom  the  spiritual  senses 
are  developed  ?  Moreover,  when  we  say  that  what  is  imma- 
terial cannot  move  matter,  do  we  not  say  what  no  scientific 
or  philosophical  analysis  has  yet  been  able  to  prove  ? 

The  Rev.  Samuel  Watson,  of  Tennessee,  late  of  the 
Methodist  Church,  a  gentleman  sincere  and  estimable  in  all 
the  relations  of  life,  says:  "I  have  seen  the  double  slate 
held  b}'  skeptics,  and  truthful  messages  were  written  on 
both  slates  when  thus  confined  together."  The  same  writer 
says:  "Spirit  manifestations  constitute  the  basis  upon 
which  the  whole  fabric  of  Christianity  has  been  built. 
Primitive  Christianity,  as  taught  by  its  founder,  and  pure 
Spiritualism  are  identical." 

In  confirmation  of  this,  the  testimony  of  the  three  prin- 


76  FACTS   AGAINST   THEORIES. 

cipal  founders  of  Methodism,  John  Wesley,  Adam  Clark, 
and  Richard  Watson,  is  adduced.  Clark  distinctly  ex- 
presses his  belief  that  spirits  msij  "have  intercourse  with 
this  world,  and  become  visible  to  mortals." 

Referring  to  the  case  of  the  reappearance  of  Samuel, 
(1  Sam.  xxviii.  11),  Richard  Watson  says:  "It  answers 
all  the  objections  which  were  ever  raised,  or  can  be  raised, 
from  the  philosoph}^  of  the  case,  against  the  possibility  of 
the  appearance  of  departed  spirits." 

That  John  Wesle}^  was  not  only  a  believer,  but  that  he 
was  mediall}^  sensitive,  would  seem  to  be  apparent  from 
passages  in  which  he  relates  that  on  three  occasions  he  saw 
spirits.  In  every  instance  their  appearance  was  followed 
by  news  of  the  death  of  each  person  at  the  time  he  appeared. 
Referring  to  one  w^ho  died  in  Jamaica,  Wesle}"  remarks  in 
afoot-note:  "  So  a  spirit  finds  no  difficulty  in  travelling 
three  or  four  thousand  miles  in  a  moment." 

The  manifestations  in  the  Wesley  familj'  in  England, 
commencing  in  1716,  resemble  in  all  respects  the  phenom- 
ena of  our  own  da}'.  The}'  continued  with  some  members 
of  the  famih"  for  over  thirty  years.  Robert  Southe}-,  in  his 
"Life  of  Wesle}',"  regards  them,  as  do  modern  Spiritual- 
ists, as  being  "  in  the  ordinary  course  of  nature"  ;  and  he 
ssLjs:  "An  author  who,  in  this  age,  relates  such  a  storj^ 
and  treats  it  as  not  utterly  incredible  and  absurd,  must 
expect  to  be  ridiculed  ;  but  the  testimony  upon  which  it 
rests  is  far  too  strong  to  be  set  aside  because  of  the 
strangeness  of  the  relation." 

Priestle}',  who  tried  to  reconcile  his  effete  s^'stem  of 
materialism  with  a  belief  in  future  rewards  and  iDunishmeuts, 
refers  to  the  Wesle^'an  phenomena  as  among  the  most 
striking  on  record  ;  though  he  made  an  abortive  attempt  to 
explain  them  by  natural  causes  ;  but  they  remain  as  inex- 
plicable as  ever  b}"  any  theory  outside  of  the  spiritual. 

Oberhn  (1740-1826),  Protestant  pastor  in  the  Ban  de  la 


SPIRITUAL   PROOFS.  77 

Roche,  part  of  the  former  province  of  Alsace,  labored  ear- 
nestly to  raise  the  condition  of  his  people.  Thej^  "were 
neari}^  all  Lutherans  and  Spiritualists.  He  tried  hard  to 
overcome  what  he  regarded  as  their  superstition,  and 
preached  forcibly  against  it ;  but  at  last  the  demonstrable, 
objective  facts  became  too  strong  for  him,  and  his  opposi- 
tion ended  by  his  becoming  a  Spiritualist  himself.  The 
dead,  he  tells  us,  frequently  re-appeared,  especiallj'  after 
that  well-known  and  terrible  accident  which  buried  several 
villages  (the  fall  of  the  Rossberg  in  1806).  Soon  after- 
wards, as  Oberlin  expressed  it,  "many  had  their  spiritual 
sight  opened,"  and  recognized  the  apparitions  of  different 
victims  of  the  disaster.  His  own  deceased  wife  was  often, 
for  years,  visible  to  his  sight,  watching  over  him,  and 
holding  communion  with  him.  Oberlin  left  a  'Marge  pile 
of  papers"  on  the  subject,  under  the  title  of  '•'•Journal  des 
Apparitions  et  Instructions  par  reves  "  (Journal  of  Appari- 
tions and  Instructions  through  dreams) .  The,y  were  com- 
mitted to  M.  Matter,  who  told  Robert  Dale  Owen  of  the 
fact  in  Paris,  May,  1859. 

The  conditions  under  which  clairvoyance  and  direct 
writing  have  been  verified,  are  of  such  a  character  that  no 
medium's  recreancy,  or  claim  to  have  deceived,  can  now 
be  of  the  slightest  avail  in  invahdating  the  evidences.  Until 
he  can  instruct  yo\x  or  me  how  to  do  the  same  things  by  the 
exercise  of  our  natural  powers,  he  may  be  set  down  as  in^ 
sincere.  If  a  medium,  without  touching  or  having  touched 
a  slate,  can  cause  writing,  indicating  clairvoj^ance,  to  appear 
on  it,  as  I  hold  it  in  my  hand,  he  must  either  produce  the 
writing  by  his  own  unconsciously  exercised  abnormal 
powers,  in  a  way  he  is  impotent  to  explain,  or  it  must  be 
produced  by  some  foreign,  unknown,  intelligent  force.  In 
either  case  it  is  a  force  operating  outside  of  any  visible 
organism. 

As  early  as  1848,  Dr.  E.  C.  Rogers,  a  gentleman  person- 


78  FACTS  AGAINST   THEORIES. 

ally  known  to  me,  broached  the  theory  that  the  powers 
manifested  in  the  phenomena  lie  within  the  sphere  of  the 
human  organization  and  of  simple  mundane  agencies.  He 
wrote  a  book  enforcing  his  views.  Recently  this  theorj' 
has  been  borrowed  by  a  German  writer  as  applicable  to  the 
phenomena  through  Henry  Slade.  But  the  inquiry  is  per- 
tinentl}"  put :  If  a  spiritually-endowed  human  agent,  while 
hampered  by  his  material  environment,  can  perform  acts 
independent  of  material  limitations,  is  it  not  a  fair  infer- 
ence that  he  can  do  more  and  better  when  the  same  spirit- 
ual powers  are  released  by  the  dissolution  of  the  phj'sical 
hqsk  ? 

In  the  majority  of  these  supposed  manifestations  from 
spirits,  it  is  indeed  difficult  to  arrive  at  a  scientific  certaintj^ 
as  to  the  identity  of  a  form-manifestation,  whether  partial 
or  entire  ;  but,  as  a  correspondent  of  the  London  Spirit- 
ualist aptly  remarks:  "Supposing  that  ail  the  evidences 
of  spirit  identity  could  be  swept  away,  the  common  phe- 
nomenon of  a  living  hand  or  head,  the  duphcate  in  ap- 
joearance  of  that  of  the  medium,  appearing  at  one  part  of 
the  room,  while  the  medium  is  in  a  dead  trance  at  the 
other,  would  of  itself  be  extremely  suggestive.  The  ques- 
tion might  well  arise  in  the  mind  of  the  observer,  whether, 
when  the  dead  bod3^  of  a  friend  is  in  the  coffin,  the  living 
counterpart  maj^  not  be  somewhere  else." 

"  I  can  never  forget,"  writes  Dr.  George  Wyld,  of  Lon- 
don (1880),  "the  overwhelming  sensations  I  experienced 
on  first  seeing  and  touching  these  hands  —  warm,  sensitive, 
detached  hands — which  grasped  mj^  hand  with  the  perfect 
reality  of  human  hands,  and  3'et  dissolved  from  the  grasp 
as  no  human  hands  could  do." 

Pneumatography  gives  us  evidence  of  an  intelligent 
force  producing  written  messages  at  a  distance  of  more 
than  twenty  feet  from  the  medium  ;  and  Clairvo3ance  gives 
us  evidence  of  a  supersensual,  intelligent  facult}-,  able  to 


SPIRITUAL    PROOFS.  79 

read  what  no  human  pair  of  ej^es  could  possibly  detect. 
Of  these  facts  I  am  as  certain  as  of  any  fact  of  human 
existence.  They  are  known  to  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
competent  witnesses  at  the  present  day.  The  legitimate 
inference  is,  that  there  is  a  natural  and  a  spiritual  organ- 
ism, common  to  all  men,  but  that  the  spiritual  manifests 
itself  only  under  certain  abnormal  or  exceptional  con- 
ditions. 

Having  satisfied  ourselves  of  intelligent,  ultra-corporeal 
action,  independent  of  mortal  muscles,  of  a  palpably 
material  brain,  or  of  any  known  physical  effort,  we  may 
rationall}^  conclude  that  it  is  not  limited  to  our  two  great 
t3'pical  phenomena,  but  that  its  range  is  co-extensive  with 
life  itself,  and  that  this  life  is  hy  no  means  dependent  for 
its  continuance  on  a  visibly  material  organism.  Other 
transcendent  phenomena  lend  ample  confirmation  to  this 
view,  and  prove  that  the  manifestations  of  life  and  mind 
are  as  various  as  thej^  are  inexplicable  unless  we  hypothe- 
cate a  force,  verj^  different  from  that  which  our  material 
organism  can  normally  supply.  From  a  single  bone  Cuvier 
could  infer  the  osteology  of  the  animal  to  which  it  be- 
longed. So  from  one  thoroughly  demonstrated  phenom- 
enon of  Spiritualism  the  great  fact  of  an  intelligent  force, 
independent  of  a  visible  organism,  may  be  scientificail}' 
inferred. 

It  is  true  that  the  various  phenomena  .have  occurred  in 
all  ages  of  the  world,  of  which  we  have  any  account.  But 
since  1848  thej  seem  to  have  been  epidemic  rather  than 
sporadic.  In  that  3'ear  the  raps  occurred  in  the  Fox  fam- 
il}'  at  H3'desville,  N.  Y.,  and  Kate  Fox,  then  a  mere  child, 
discovered  by  questioning  them  that  the}^  betra3'ed  intelli- 
gence. From  that  time  the  modern  phenomena  have  mul- 
tiplied and  increased  in  importance  :  — 

With  man3"  mediums  there  were  raps  and  knocks,  an- 
swering questions   and   spelling   out   messages ;   in   other 


80  FACTS  AGAINST  THEORIES. 

cases,  tables  rising  up  on  two  legs,  pounded  on  the  floor 
their  revelations.  Dials,  with  movable  hands,  were  used, 
which  pointed  out  letters  and  answered  questions  without 
apparent  human  aid.  The  hands  of  mediums,  acting  con- 
vulsively, and,  as  they  averred,  without  volition,  wrote 
things  beyond  their  knowledge.  In  these  writings,  pro- 
duced often  with  incredible  speed,  the  chirography  was 
sometimes  reversed,  so  that  to  read  them  one  had  to  read 
the  reflection  in  a  mirror.  The}^  were  done  under  circum- 
stances that  clearl}^  proved  abnormal  action.  Some  me- 
diums would  write  different  messages  with  both  hands  at.a 
time,  and  without  any  consciousness  of  what  they  were 
writing.  There  were  speaking  mediums  who  declared 
themselves  to  be  merely  passive  instruments  of  the  spirits. 
Some  would  represent  with  amazing  fidelity  the  actions, 
voices,  and  appearance  of  persons  long  deceased,  and 
whom  they  had  never  seen.  There  were  drawing  mediums, 
who,  blindfolded,  drew  accurate  portraits  of  the  departed, 
and  this  with  incredible  celerit}^  Sometimes  stigmata 
would  appear  in  raised  red  lines  upon  the  skin  of  the  me- 
dium, indicating  too  the  power  of  clairvoj^ance.  Pon- 
derous bodies,  as  heav}'  dining-tables  and  piano-fortes, 
would  be  raised  from  the  floor.  Writings  and  pictures 
were  produced  without  visible  hands.  Luminous  ap- 
pearances were  frequent.  Persons  were  touched  by  in- 
visible and  sometimes  visible  hands.  Various  musical 
instruments  were  plaj^ed  on  without  visible  agency.  In 
m}^  own  library  I  have  had  a  large  bass-viol  skilfully 
plaj^ed  on  hj  some  unknown  force  in  the  dark,  when  the 
medium's  hands  were  held,  and  there  was  no  possibility  of 
collusion  or  deception.  Voices  were  often  heard  that  did 
not  i^roceed  from  the  medium.  Persons  were  lifted  to  the 
ceiling  under  circumstances  that  left  no  doubt  as  to  the 
reality  of  the  mysterious  levitation.  Phantom  faces,  as 
well  as  full-form  manifestations,  would  be  produced  when 
fraud  or  hallucination  was  out  of  the  question. 

All  the  most  important  of  these  phenomena  I  have  my- 
self witnessed  under  conditions,  which,  if  not  sufficientlj' 
rigorous  to  induce  me  to  place  them  by  the  side  of  the 
pneumatographic  and  clairvoyant  phenomena  as  estabUshed 


SPIRITUAL   PROOFS.  81 

facts  of  science,  were  yet  suflScient  to  cause  me  to  accept 
them  in  my  own  estimation  as  equally  proved. 

Let  him  who  would  undervalue  the  immense  significance 
of  our  phenomena  ask  himself  why  it  is,  then,  that  they 
are  denounced  so  arrogantly  and  repudiated  so  angrity  by 
a  large  majority  of  the  leading  ph3^sicists  and  materialists 
of  the  daj.  Why  is  it,  except  that  thej^  see  that  if  our 
facts  are  accepted  as  true,  they  must  work  the  utter  over- 
throw of  all  Sadducean  and  materialistic  sj'stems. 

In  his  report  of  the  phenomena  through  Slade,  Zolluer, 
the  eminent  German  professor  of  phj^sical  astronomy,  tes- 
tifies as  follows : 

"  On  the  CA^ening  of  November  16,  1877,  I  placed  in  a 
room  which  Slade  had  never  entered,  a  card -table  and  four 
chairs.  After  Professor  Fechner,  Professor  Braune,  Slade, 
and  I  had  taken  our  places,  and  laid  our  hands  upon  the 
table,  a  knocking  in  the  table  was  heard.  Writing  was 
given  in  the  usual  way  upon  a  slate  bought  by  m3'self  two 
hours  before,  and  which  I  had  also  marked.  .  .  .  The 
book-slate,  after  being  first  cleaned,  and  a  crumb  of  pencil 
laid  between,  was  then  closed  and  held  by  Slade  over  the 
head  of  Professor  Braune.  The  noise  of  writing  was  soon 
heard,  and  when  the  slate  was  opened,  a  long  message  was 
found  upon  it.  Whilst  this  was  going  on,  suddenly  a  bed 
behind  a  screen  began  to  move,  and  came  about  two  feet 
away  from  the  wall,  shoving  the  screen  with  it.  Slade  was 
more  than  four  feet  from  the  bed,  had  his  back  turned  to 
it,  and  his  legs  crossed." 

Here  is  Zollner's  account  of  an  experiment  in  which 
matter  was  made  to  disappear  and  reappear : 

"At  about  half-past  eleven  o'clock,  in  bright  sunlight,  I 
became,  wholly  without  expectation  or  preparation,  a  wit- 
ness of  a  A^ery  extraordinary  phenomenon.  I  had,  as  usual, 
taken  my  place  with  Slade  at  a  card-table.  Opposite  me, 
and  near  the  card-table,  stood  a  small  round  stand.  Some- 
thing like  a  minute  may  have  passed  after  Slade  and  I  had 
seated  ourselves  and  placed  our  hands,  one  above  the  other, 
together,  when  the  round  stand  began  slowlj'  to  sway  to 
6 


82  FACTS   AGAINST   THEORIES. 

and  fro.  We  both  saw  it  clearl3'.  The  motions  were  soon 
more  extensive,  and,  meanwhile,  the  whole  stand  drew  near 
to  the  card-table,  and  placed  itself  under  the  latter,  with  its 
three  feet  turned  toward  me.  I,  and  as  it  seemed  also  Mr. 
Slade,  did  not  know  in  what  way  the  phenomena  were  to 
be  further  developed.  For  perhaps  a  minute  nothing  at  all 
happened.  Slade  was  about  to  use  his  slate  and  pencil  to 
ask  the  spirits  whether  we  were  to  ex^^ect  anj^thing,  when 
I  resolved  to  take  a  nearer  view  of  the  round  stand  which 
was  Ijing,  as  I  thought,  under  the  card-table.  To  my 
greatest  amazement,  and  Slade's  also,  we  found  the  space 
under  the  card-table  perfectl}^  empty.  Nowhere  in  the  rest 
of  the  chamber  could  we  find  the  stand  which  a  minute 
previously  had  been  before  our  eyes.  After  five  or  six 
minutes  spent  in  breathless  waiting  for  the  reappearance  of 
the  stand,  Slade  claimed  that  he  saw  appearances  of  lights 
of  which  I,  as  usual,  could  see  nothing.  Looking  with 
more  and  more  anxiety  and  astonishment  in  different  direc- 
tions in  the  air  above  me,  Slade  asked  me  if  I  did  not  see 
the  appearance  of  large  lights,  and  while  I  answered  the 
question  with  a  decided  negative,  I  turned  my  head  in  the 
direction  of  the  ceihng  of  the  chamber,  and  suddenl}^  saw, 
at  a  height  of  about  five  feet,  the  lost  table,  with  the  legs 
directed  upward  into  the  air,  float  downward  rapidly  upon 
the  top  of  the  card-table."    (Zollner,  vol.  ii.,  part  2,  p.  917.) 

The  following  is  the  Rev.  Joseph  Cook's  account  of  one 
of  the  experiments  with  Slade,  at  which  Zollner  and  other 
German  professors  were  present : 

"A  ijrofessor  of  Leipzig  University  buj^s  a  book-slate 
himself,  and  ties  it  up,  or  locks  it,  or  screws  it  together, 
first  having  cleansed  it  and  carefulty  removed  any  chemical 
preparation  on  it.  He  does  not  allow  it  to  go  out  of  his 
hands  during  the  experiment.  It  is  watched  by  men  of 
trained  habits  of  observation,  while  writing  appears  on  its 
interior  surface.  An  elaborate  scientific  work  from  the 
foremost  university  in  the  world  contains  plates  illustrating 

writing   produced    in   this   manner Ver}^   often   the 

subject-matter  of  the  writing  found  on  the  slates  is  beyond 
the  knowledge  of  the  ps3"chic.  Greek  has  been  written  on 
slates,  and  found  to  be  accurate,  when  the  psj'chic  knew 
nothing  of  the  language.    It  is  thought  by  Zollner  and  his 


SPIRITUAL   PROOFS.  83 

associates  to  be  demonstrably  impossible  to  produce  these 

results   b}'    fraud ZoUner   undertakes    to    face    all 

Germany  with  experiments  like  these.  He  affirms  that 
Weber,  Fechner,  and  Scheibner  agree  with  him,  and  Leipzig 
University  keeps  him  in  his  place. 

' '  The  mechanical  theor}^  of  matter  is  exploded  if  Z611- 
ner's  alleged  facts  can  be  proved  to  be  real,  but  here  are 
grave  experts  who  unite  in  assuring  the  world  that  these 
events  occurred  under  their  own  e3^e-sight.  Here  is  the 
Court  Conjurer,  who  says  he  can  do  nothing  of  the  kind. 
I  hold  in  my  hand  a  volume  b}'  Fichte,  and  he  saj's,  quoting 
these  experiments,  and  naming  the  professors  who  per- 
formed them,  that  he  could  himself,  if  he  were  authorized, 
give  in  addition  to  these  names  mau}^  others  in  German}^, 
who  by  the  experiments  at  Leipzig  had  been  convinced  of 
the  reality  of  the  facts,  and  of  their  worthiness  to  be  made 
the  subject  of  scientific  research.  (Fichte,  Der  neiiere 
jSpiritualismus.     Leipzig :  Brockhaus.   1878.  p.  104.)" 

The  Leipzig  experiment  of  tying  knots  in  an  endless  cord 
was  repeated  bj^  my  correspondent.  Dr.  T.  L.  Nichols,  32 
Fopstone-road,  London,  in  April,  1878.  In  his  description 
he  saj's  :  "  It  is  certain  that  no  mortal  man  could  haxe  tied 
these  knots  —  equally  certain  that  all  the  philosophers  and 
all  the  magicians  of  Europe  cannot  now  untie  them  under 
the  same  conditions." 

Zollner  illustrates  his  experiment  by  a  large  plate, 
showing  the  condition  of  the  cord,  and  that  no  theory  of 
legerdemain  can  explain  what  was  accomplished. 
,  That  the  psychic  force  is  under  the  control  of  spirits,  as 
well  as  of  men  under  certain  abnormal  conditions,  is  the 
rational  conclusion.  It  was  the  conclusion  of  Cicero,  of 
Plutarch,  and  of  St.  Augustine. 

The  Rev.  Joseph  Cook  draws  a  distinction  between  the 
superhuman  and  the  supernatural :  a  theological  specula- 
tion which  no  one  can  gainsay,  since  it  does  not  belong  to 
the  domain  of  the  demonstrable.  The  doings,  however 
marvellous,  of  all  finite  spirits,  may  not  be  supernatura] 


84  FACTS   AGAINST   THEORIES. 

except  in  the  sense  that  the}^  mixj  be  empowered  by  the 
onlj  Being  superior  to  Nature,  because  its  Author.  Tran- 
scendental Ph3'sics,  initiated  by  tlie  renewed  attention  of 
modern  times  to  ps3'chical  phenomena,  are  in  perfect  har- 
mony with  the  dominant  teachings  of  the  Bible  in  respect 
to  the  nature  of  man  and  the  power  of  spirits. 

The  accomplished  Hindoo  preacher  and  medium,  Baboo 
Chund  Mittra,  in  an  address  delivered  at  Calcutta,  Januarj-, 
1879,  advocating  the  scientific  claims  of  Spiritualism, 
remarked  :  ' '  The  God  of  science  is  my  God  ;  he  who  in  all 
ages  works  wonders,  and  continuall3^  exhibits  his  wisdom, 
power,  and  love  throughout  the  amplitudes  of  nature.  All 
science  is  religion,  and  all  religion  is  science.  There  is  as 
much  science  in  prayer  as  in  the  locomotive  engine  ;  as 
much  science  in  inspiration  as  in  the  microscope  and  tele- 
graph wire." 

Mrs.  Sarah  Helen  Whitman,  (1802-1878,)  the  lady  who 
was  once  betrothed  to  the  poet  Poe,  and  with  whom  I  had 
a  good  deal  of  correspondence  on  the  subject  of  Spirit- 
ualism, remarked,  among  her  other  acute  observations  on 
the  subject :  "  The  occult  psj^chical  energies  that  lie  folded 
up  within  us,  are  pointing  to  a  rich  and  unexplored  domain 
of  our  m3^sterious  inner  life ;  and  the  knowledge  of  this 
winged,  expansive  nature,  that  has  long  lain  dimly  dream- 
ing within  its  chr3^salis,  is  revealed  to  us  precisely  at  the 
epoch  when  the  rapid  progress  of  ph3^sical  science  threat- 
ened to  banish  the  last  faint  vestiges  of  our  faith  in  spiritual 
causation  and  spiritual  influence." 

The  New  York  Scientific  American^  unfriendly  to  Spirit- 
ualism, makes  this  admission  :  "  If  true,  it  will  become  the 
one  grand  event  of  the  world's  history,  and  will  give  an 

imperishable  lustre  of  glor3^  to  the  nineteenth  century 

If  the  pretensions  of  Spiritualism  have  a  rational  founda- 
tion, no  more  important  work  has  been  offered  to  men  than 
their  verification." 


SPIRITUAL  .PROOFS.  85 

To  ask  for  the  cui  bono  of  such  a  revelation  —  to  insin- 
uate that  we  do  not  need  it  —  is  at  once  to  ignore  the 
growing  unbelief  of  the  times,  and  to  mock  at  the  most 
sacred  hopes  and  religious  intuitions  of  the  majoritj^  of 
mankind. 

This  uni'S'orse,  be  sure,  is  not  an  infinite  contrivance  for 
the  production  and  swift  extinction  of  sentient,  loving,  in- 
telligent life  ; — it  is  not  a  stupendous  vestibule  to  a  charnel- 
house,-^  where  affection,  friendship,  science,  and  art  find 
congenial  and  progressive  recipients  for  a  few  fleeting 
moments,  and  man  is  admitted  to  a  glimpse  of  a  possible 
happiness  and  growth,  and  then  plunged  into  the  blackness 
of  annihilation;  —  a  world  where  life  and  mind  are  given 
only  to  be  withdrawn,  as  if  in  mockery,  and  truth  and 
goodness  are  as  evanescent  as  falsehood  and  evil. 

Spiritualism,  by  its  objective,  supersensual,  and  verifiable 
facts,  declares  to  us  that  this  pessimistic  view  of  things  is 
radically  wrong ;  that  all  this  grand  display  of  suns  and 
systems  is  not  "  a  tale  told  by  an  idiot,  signifying  nothing  ;" 
that  the  infinite  magnitude  and  variety  of  the  universe  ought 
to  impress  us  as  an  earnest  of  our  immortality  —  for  what 
are  all  these  wonders  without  minds  to  study  and  enjoy 
them  ?  —  that  states  of  consciousness  may  subside  and  give 
place  to  other  states,  but  that  they  are  all  reproducible,  and 
in  that  sense,  eternal,  since  memory  holds  forever  in  its 
occult  receptacles  all  the  impressions  it  takes  ;  —  and  that 
a  present  good  is  an  inalienable  good  forever,  never  to  be 
lost  by  the  soul  that  once  felt  its  power  ;  —  that  love  is  a 
divine  principle  of  our  nature  which  grows  by  giving,  ex- 
pands by  imparting,  and  is  the  spring  of  a  fresh  and  ever- 
lasting joy  ;  —  that  death  is  merely  a  release  from  an  organ- 
ism for  which  the  soul  has  ready  a  far  nobler,  though  to 
our  coarse  mortal  senses,  invisible,  substitute  ; — that  we  are 
not  orphans  —  na}^,  worse  than  orphans  —  flung  out  by  a 
blind,  remorseless  Fate,   our  only  parent,   into   an   alien 


86  FACTS    AGAINST    THEORIES. 

univ^erse,  but  that  we  are  destined  to  have  the  freedom  of 
ever}^  remotest  planet,  all  intelligences  forming  one  grand 
confraternitj^,  interchanging  love  and  knowledge  ;  that  there 
is  a  conscious,  a  loving  and  omniscient  Omnipotence  pre- 
siding over  all  the  details  of  this  stupendous  complex  ;  and 
that  b}^  beneficent  and  eternal  laws  every  soul  will  gravitate, 
in  the  life  to  come,  where  it  belongs,  where  it  can  best  find 
what  is  congenial  to  the  disposition  it  has  formed  here,  and 
there  continue  till  it  can  rise,  b}^  proper  gradations  and  its 
own  sincere  eff'orts,  to  more  worth}^  conditions,  and  take  in 
at  length  a  realization  of  the  inefi'able  grandeur  and  the 
splendid  possibilities  of  its  inheritance,  and  aspire  and 
strive  accordingly. 

Such  are  the  views  which  Spiritualism,  broadly  and  faith- 
full}^  studied,  suggests  and  justifies.  The  certainties  pre- 
sented, in  our  two  representative  and  fulh^-established  facts, 
make  credible  analogous  phenomena,  fully  attested,  but  not 
so  eas}^  of  flawless  exposition.  The  phenomena  of  direct 
writing  and  of  clairvoyance  have  been  chosen  for  a  scientific 
basis,  because  there  is  not  a  flaw,  nor  a  conceivable  doubt, 
in  the  experimental  method  b}^  which  the}"  have  been  and 
are  daily  certified  and  confirmed. 

There  may  be  other  phenomena  more  surprising,  and  to 
an  acquaintance  with  which  a  thorough  conviction  of  these 
ma}^  safely  introduce  us  ;  but  there  are  none  that  we  know 
of  which  appeal  more  directty  to  the  senses  and  the  reason 
of  the  scientific  investigator  for  their  confirmation.  Should 
all  the  mediums  for  direct  writing  be  detected  in  tricks,  they 
would  not  invalidate  these  phenomena  until  it  could  be 
proved  that  any  skilful  juggler,  exercising  no  medial  power, 
could  produce  the  same  under  the  same  conditions.  This, 
in  the  nature  of  things,  cannot  be  done,  since  they  involve 
the  exercise  of  a  faculty  at  once  abnormal  and  transcendent, 
and  are  inexplicable  without  it. 


SPIRITUALISM   AS   A   SCIENTIFIC   QUESTION.  87 


CHAPTER    III. 

EEPLT  TO   THE    OBJECTIONS    OF   PROFESSOR   WUNDT. 

All  objections  to  the  scientific  investigation  of  a  fact  of 
nature  must  have  ignorance  or  superstition  at  their  root. 
Professor  Wilhelm  Wundt,  of  Leipzig,  eminent  as  a  meta- 
plij^sical  writer,  is  the  author  of  a  work  on  "  The  Axioms 
of  Phj'sics  and  their  Relation  to  the  Principle  of  Cau- 
sality." The  subject  is  one  which  could  hardty  be  treated 
exhaustivel}'  without  some  knowledge  of  those  occult 
causes  of  motion  which  operate  in  the  phenomena  of  Spir- 
itualism. Of  these  he  seems  to  be  ignorant.  It  is  a  great 
error  of  specialists  in  science  to  suppose  that  the  chief  claim 
of  a  belief  in  immortality  to  their  attention  is  that  it  rests 
on  the  emotions. 

Because  a  man  is  proficient  in  one  branch  of  science,  it 
does  not  follow  that  his  authority  is  of  much  value  in  an- 
other, with  which  his  acquaintance  is  superficial.  He  may 
be  an  excellent  geologist,  and  yet  unqualified  to  decide  a 
question  in  regard  to  the  habits  of  bees.  He  may  be  a 
subtile  logician  like  Mill,  or  an  accomplished  physiologist 
like  Huxley,  and  yet  a  poor  authority  in  musical  science, 
and  a  mere  blunderer  when,  after  a  slight  examination,  he 
would  throw  discredit  on  certain  psychical  phenomena,  to 
which  others,  who  have  given  to  the  subject  the  stud_y  of 
half  a  lifetime,  may  testify'.  The  following  repl}"  to  the 
objections  raised  by  Professor  Wundt  to  the  prosecution 
of  our  investigations  as  matters  of  scientific  interest,  will 
explain  itself :  — 


88  REPLY   TO   WUNDT. 

Your  "Open  Letter"  to  Professor  Hermann  Ulrici,  of 
Halle,  on  "  Spiritualism  as  a  Scientific  Question,"  has  been 
translated  and  published  in  the  "American  Popular  Science 
Monthly "  for  September,  1879.  It  appears  that  Ulrici, 
from  whose  views  3'ou  dissent,  had  arrived  at  the  conviction 
that  the  reality  of  certain  facts,  attested  by  eminent  men 
of  science,  can  no  longer  be  doubted,  and  that  Spiritual- 
ism, so  called,  has  thus  become  a  scientific  question  of  the 
highest  importance. 

It  also  appears  that  there  were  present  at  the  seances 
held  with  Henry  Slade  at  Leipzic  in  1877,  besides  those 
professors  who  became  convinced  of  the  actualit}^  of  the 
spiritualistic  phenomena,  certain  other  members  of  the 
universit^^,  who  did  not  appear  to  share  this  conviction. 
Of  these  latter  jon  were  one ;  and  Ulrici,  it  would  seem, 
in  his  "  Zeitschrift  fur  Philosojjhie  tend  philoso^yhische 
KritiJc,"  called  upon  the  dissenters  to  state  publicly  what 
thej^  saw;  why 'they  doubt  the  objective  realit}^  of  what 
the}^  saw  ;  and  wh}^  they  feel  compelled  to  assume  juggler}', 
deceit,  or  illusion. 

On  this  last  point  your  mind,  if  I  may  judge  from  your 
language,  is  still  in  a  state  of  indecision.  There  are  pas- 
sages in  which  you  seem  to  admit  frankly  the  objectivity 
and  inexplicable  character  of  the  phenomena ;  and  there 
are  others  in  which  you  suggest  "jugglery"  as  the  solu- 
tion, and  charge  the  medium  with  untruthfulness  in  claim- 
ing to  be  a  passive  instrument.  The  two  reasons  on  which 
3-0U  found  this  charge  so  obviously  proceed  from  an  igno- 
rance of  the  facts  and  theories  pertaining  to  medial  devel- 
opment, that  they  can  be  very  readily  confuted. 

Meanwhile  the  proofs  of  your  hesitancy  are  these  :  —  In 
your  second  paragraph,  addressing  Ulrici,  3'ou  say:  "For 
merely  subjective  phantasms  of  the  observers,  these  phe- 
nomena, as  3'ou  justly  remark,  cannot  be  held  ;  their  ob- 
jectivity and  reality  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word  will 


SPIRITUALISM    AS    A    SCIENTIFIC   QUESTION.  89 

in  fact  be  questioned  by  no  man  who  ma^^  even  have  read 
onl}'  your  short  description." 

Again,  in  paragraph  15,  you  write:  "  If  3'ou  ask  me 
now  whether  I  am  in  a  condition  to  express  a  conjecture  as 
to  how  these  experiments  were  performed,  I  answer,  No. 
At  the  same  time,  however,  I  must  state  that  phenomena 
of  this  sort  he  entirel}^  outside  the  domain  of  tlie  special 
training  which  I  have  acquired  during  my  scientific  career." 
And  in  the  same  paragraph  you  remark :  ' '  You  will  cer- 
tainl}^  find  it  justifiable,  if  I  do  not  go  into  hj'potheses  as 
to  how  the  phenomena  produced  b}^  Mr.  Slade  were  brought 
about." 

After  these  ingenuous  concessions  to  the  truth,  I  was 
certainly  surprised  to  find  you,  in  paragraph  16,  suddenl}^ 
breaking  through  these  wise  limitations  of  your  candor, 
and  suggesting  the  old  and  ten  thousand  times  exploded 
theor}"  of  JLigglerj^ ;  for  you  sa}^ :  "As  to  the  experiments 
which  I  saw  myself,  I  believe  that  they  will  not  fail  to  pro- 
duce upon  ever}^  unprejudiced  reader  who  has  ever  seen 
skilful  prestidigitations  the  impression  of  well-managed 
feats  of  jugglery."  And  again:  "I  cannot  find  that  an}^ 
one  of  the  experiments  which  I  saw  with  Mr.  Slade  was 
above  the  powers  of  a  good  juggler." 

Yet  in  the  paragraph  before,  you  had  confessed  you  were 
not  "  in  a  condition  to  express  a  conjecture  as  to  how  these 
experiments  were  performed."  Such  inconsistencies  are 
lamentably  out  of  place  in  what  assumes  to  be  a  rigorous 
examination  of  a  scientific  question.  The}'  suggest  the 
impression  that  you  have  not  reall}'  yet  made  up  jonv  mind 
on  the  subject. 

There  is  an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  your  theorj'  of  jug- 
gler}^, and  3^ou  try  to  remove  it  in  a  somewhat  off-hand  and 
cavalier  manner.  The  important  testimon}'  of  Bellachini 
(see  page  65  of  this  volume)  3'ou  dismiss  in  three  lines 
with  the  evasive  remark,  that  you  would  acknowledge  him 


90  REPLY   TO    WUNDT. 

as  an  authority,  if  you  "  could  premise  iu  his  case  that 

he  had  a  conception  of  the  scientific  scope  of  the  question.'' 
Under  this  euphuism,  what  hes  concealed?  What  but  an 
imputation  on  the  veracity  of  the  affiant  ?  What  is  inatten- 
tion to  the  "scientific  scope  of  a  question"  addressed  to 
an  expert,  but  inattention  to  the  truth  of  a  question  ?  You 
intimate  that  Bellachini  was  careless  as  to  the  truth  of  what 
he  solemnly  asserts  in  regard  to  a  matter  he  was  employed 
to  investigate.  His  professional  reputation  was  risked  in 
his  being  outwitted  by  a  competing  juggler ;  and  3'et  be- 
cause, with  the  courage  of  an  honest  man,  he  declares  that 
there  was  no  prestidigitation  possible  in  the  inexplicable 
occurrences  at  the  Slade  seances^  jon^  to  give  countenance 
to  3'our  own  vacillating  second  thoughts  on  the  subject, 
presume  to  impugn  his  truthfulness. 

In  arguing  against  the  claims  of  Spiritualism  to  scientific 
recognition,  you  put  these  two  questions  :  (1)  What  are 
the  characterizing  marks  of  a  scientific  authority?  (2)  WJiat 
influence  may  loe  concede  to  outside  authority  upon  our  own 
knoivledge  ? 

You  sa}^,  with  truth  :  ' '  The  highest  degree  of  credibility 
is  not  sufficient  to  make  any  man  a  scientific  authority ; 
there  is  requisite  to  this  a  special  professional,  and  indeed 
a  technical  training^  which  must  have  approved  itself  by 
superior  accomplishments  in  the  province  concerned."  .  .  . 
(Precisely  such  a  training  as  Bellachini  had  for  detecting  a 
trick,  if  there  was  one!)  "  In  order  to  be  able  to  speak 
with  authority  concerning  any  phenomena,  one  must  pos- 
sess a  thorough,  critical  knowledge  of  the  same." 

Influenced  by  considerations  like  these,  I  might  reason- 
ably maintain  that  investigators,  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  our  phenomena,  are  more  competent  to  judge  of  them, 
than  any  speciahst  in  some  other  branch  of  science.  You 
are  here  sustained  in  j^our  views  by  the  verj^  class  whose 
belief  j'ou  would  stamp  as  unscientific. 


SPIRITUALISM    AS   A    SCIENTIFIC    QUESTION.  91 

You  further  say:  *' Authorities  in  the  present  case, 
therefore,  are  only  such  persons  as  either  possess  nTeclium- 
istic  powers,  or,  without  claiming  to  be  bearers  of  such 
properties,  are  able  to  produce  i^henomena  of  the  same 
nature." 

Here  you  show  a  profound  ignorance  of  the  nature  of 
the  medial  manifestations.  The  persons  who,  without  pos- 
sessing medial  power,  are  "able  to  produce  phenomena  of 
the  same  nature "  in  the  same  way  that  the}^  are  produced 
in  the  presence  of  mediums,  are  as  yet  a  wholl3^  imaginary 
class.  There  have  been,  ever  since  the  year  1847,  char- 
latans and  swindlers,  or  else  renegade  mediums,  who  have 
pretended  to  be  exposers  of  medial  phenomena  ;  but  in  no 
one  trifling  instance  have  these  impostors  been  able  to  ex- 
plain, outside  of  the  spiritual  hj^pothesis,  an}^  one  actual 
phenomenon  in  such  a  wa}^  that  it  could  be  produced  by 
non-medial  persons  as  it  is  through  genuine  mediums.  I 
defy  an^^  man  to  prove  the  contrary.  The  pretended  ex- 
posers  have  at  times  fooled  eminent  opponents  of  Spirit- 
ualism, like  Huxle}^  and  Cai'penter,  both  in  England  and 
America  ;  but  they  have  never  taken  the  first  step  towards 
enlightening  a  person,  really  and  practically  acquainted 
with  the  subject,  as  to  the  modus  operandi.  This  shows 
that  you  are  clearly  right  in  your  remark,  that  "  in  order 
to  be  able  to  speak  with  authority  concerning  any  phenom- 
ena, one  must  possess  a  thorough,  critical  knowledge  of 
the  same." 

Your  notion  that  mediums  themselves  are  authorities  as 
to  the  phenomena,  or  that  they  possess  a  thorough,  critical 
knowledge  of  the  same,  is  true  onl}^  in  a  few  remarkable 
instances,  and  in  those  only  to  a  limited  extent.  The 
most  powerful  mediums  are  almost  always,  while  the  phe- 
nomena are  going  on,  in  a  state  of  trance  or  nervous  exal- 
tation wholly  unfitted  for  critical  observation.  That  they 
sometimes  believe  they  are  under  the  influence   of  some 


92  REPLY   TO    WUNDT. 

spirit  who  may  cliscoorse  through  their  lips  on  the  character 
of  the  phenomena  and  trj^  to  explain  them,  is  quite  true ; 
but  such  testimon}^  is  not  accepted  as  scientific,  except  so 
far  as  it  satisfies  human  reason.  Your  statement,  there- 
fore, as  to  what  is  authority  in  the  case  is  wholly  fallacious, 
and  merely  betrays  j^our  ignorance  of  the  whole  subject. 

The  two  general  questions  which  I  have  quoted,  and 
wliich  you  yourself  undertake  to  answer,  lead  3'ou  into  an 
assumption,  upon  which  the  whole  weight  of  your  argu- 
ment, as  to  the  non-scientific  character  of  the  claims  of 
Spiritualism,  is  made  to  depend.  But  the  assumption  is 
grossly  arbitrary  and  fallacious  ;  it  is  expressed  by  you  in 
various  forms,  of  which  I  select  the  following : 

(1)  There  rules  in  nature  neither  freak  nor  accident.  .  .  . 
On  the  contrary,  the  most  conspicuous  characteristic  of 
these  phenomena  lies  precisely  in  the  fact  that  in  their 
presence  the  laws  of  nature  seem  to  be  abrogated. 

(2)  The  laws  of  gravitation,  of  electricity^,  of  light,  and 
of  heat  are  altogether,  as  we  are  assured,  of  a  purely 
hj'pothetical  validit}" ;  they  have  authority  so  long  as  the 
inexplicable,  spiritualistic  something  does  not  cross  them. 

(3)  On  the  one  side  stands  the  authority  of  the  whole 
history  of  science,  the  totality  of  all  known  natural  laws, 
which  have  not  only  been  discovered  under  the  presupposi- 
tion of  a  universal  causality,  but  have  also  without  excep- 
tion confirmed  the  same. 

(4)  On  the  other  side  stands  the  authorit}^  of  a  few  cer- 
tainly most  eminent  naturalists,  who  .  .  .  announce  the 
discovery  that  causalit}^  has  a  flaw,  and  that  we  must  con- 
sequently abandon  our  former  view  of  nature. 

Your  complaint  that  the  laws  of  nature  are  abrogated  by 
the  phenomena  is  as  irrational  and  inane  as  were  the  objec- 
tions of  those  persons  who,  when  telescopes  and  micro- 
scopes were  invented,  denounced  them  as  atheistic  innova- 
tions ;  or  as  were  the  outcries  of  those  who  opposed  the 
theor}^  of  the  rotundit}''  of  the  earth  and  the  existence  of 
the  antipodes  as  unscientific.     How  could  men  be  supposed 


SPIRITUALISM    AS    A    SCIENTIFIC   QUESTION.  93 

to  walk  with  their  heads  down  in  space  like  flies  on  a 
ceiling ! 

In  order  to  make  a  show  of  a  scientific  reason  for  your 
objection,  you  are  obliged  to  assume  what  science  gives 
you  no  authority  to  assume,  namel}^  that  there  are  no 
such  beings  as  spirits,  invisible  to  human  sight,  but  exor- 
cising wonderful,  though  limited,  powers  over  matter.  I 
offset  3^our  mere  hj'pothesis  with  another,  which  is,  that 
there  are  such  beings  in  existence  ;  and  I  assert  that  there 
are  proofs  of  it.  Since  there  is  no  proof  whatever  to  the 
contrary,  your  reiteration  of  the  assertion  that  our  facts 
clash  with  the  laws  of  nature,  is  the  mere  repetition  of  a 
conjecture  of  yom:  own,  having  no  scientific  validit}'  what- 
ever. 

You  assume  that  when  a  man  is  hfted  to  the  ceiling  b}^ 
no  known  human  means  or  appliances,  the  law  of  gravita- 
tion is  violated.  But,  with  a  purel}^  arbitrarj^  indifiTerence, 
you  leave  out  of  sight  entirely  the  possibilit}'  that  the  levi- 
tation  may  be  effected  by  the  power  of  spirits,  substan- 
tially organized,  though  invisible  to  our  coarse  natural 
senses  :  in  which  case  the  law  of  gravitation  is  no  more 
violated  than  it  is  when  a  man  turns  a  somerset.  If  the 
'"  laws  of  gravitation,  of  electricity,  of  light,  and  of 
heat "  (2)  may  be,  to  a  limited  extent,  modified  or  sus- 
pended b}^  human  art,  why  may  not  spirits  have  a  similar, 
though  greatlj^  superior  power,  and  exercise  it  without  any 
breach  either  of  the  laws  of  nature  or  the  principles  of 
causality  ?  Your  charge  that  these  laws  have  a  '  -  purely 
h3^pothetical  validity  "  in  the  estimation  of  Spirituahsts,  is 
directly  opposed  to  the  truth ;  for  we  believe  that  all  phe- 
nomena whatever  are  in  accordance  with  natural  law. 

This  cry  that  the  laws  of  nature  are  contravened  if  our 
phenomena  are  true,  has  been  common  for  the  last  thirty- 
five  3^ears.  It  is  the  chief  ammunition  of  Mr.  Youmans, 
of  the  Popular  Science  Monthly^  in  his  war  against  Spirit* 


94  REPLY   TO    WUNDT. 

ualism ;  and  though  it  has  been  confuted  thousands  of 
times  by  well-known  Spiritualists,  such  as  Robert  Cham- 
bers, Alfred  R.  Wallace,  Professor  De  Morgan,  and  Robert 
Dale  Owen,  it  is  now  gravel}^  put  forth  in  jour  letter  as  if 
it  were  a  new  and  stunning  objection. 

The  man  of  imperfect  science  postulates  "  an  inflexible 
order  of  nature ; "  but  how  does  he  know  that  there  are 
not  higher  laws  of  nature,  which  he  has  not  3'et  discov- 
ered, but  to  which  other  laws  are  subordinate?  It  has 
been  justly  said  of  him,  that  when  he  assumes  that  Nature 
must  do  so  and  so  because  she  has  done  so  and  so  up  to 
this  time,  he  puts  a  subjective,  metaphysical  will  behind 
his  physical  order  of  things. 

My  esteemed  correspondent,  Alfred  Russell  Wallace, 
must  be  well  known  to  the  German  readers  of  Darwin's 
works  as  an  eminent  English  naturalist  He  is  also  an 
outspoken  Spirituahst.  He  has  treated  with  his  usual 
acuteness  this  constantly  recurring  objection  (revived  by 
3'ou)  of  a  contravention  of  the  laws  of  nature.     He  says  : 

"  One  common  fallacy  appears  to  me  to  run  through  all 
the  arguments  against  facts  deemed  miraculous,  Vv^hen  it  is 
asserted  that  they  violate,  or  invade,  or  subvert  the  laws 
of  nature.  This  is  really  assuming  the  very  point  to  be 
decided,  for  if  the  disputed  fact  did  happen,  it  could  only 
be  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  nature,  since  the  only 
complete  definition  of  the  '  laws  of  nature '  is,  that  they 
are  the  laws  which  regulate  all  phenomena. 

"  To  refuse  to  admit  what  in  other  cases  would  be  abso- 
lutely conclusive  evidence  of  a  fact,  because  it  cannot  be 
explained  by  those  laws  of  nature  with  which  we  are  now 
acquainted,  is  really  to  maintain  that  we  have  complete 
knowledge  of  those  laws,  and  can  determine  beforehand 
what  is  or  is  not  possible. 

"I  assert,  without  fear  of  contradiction,  that  whenever 
the  scientific  men  of  any  age  have  denied  the  facts  of  in- 
vestigation on  a  priori  grounds,  they  have  always  been 
wrong.  .  .  .  When  Castallet  informed  Reaumur  that  he 
had  reared  perfect  silkworms  from  the  eggs  laid  by  a  virgin 


SPIRITOALISM    AS   A    SCIENTIFIC    QUESTION.  95 

moth,  the  answer  was,  Ex  niliiJo  iiihilfit;  and  the  fact  was 
disbelieved.  It  was  contraiy  to  one  of  the  widest  and  best 
estabhshed  laws  of  nature  ;  jQi  it  is  now  universally  ad- 
mitted to  be  true,  and  the  supposed  law  ceases  to  be  uni- 
versal." 

You  will  thus  see  that  jomv  alarm  lest  the  laws  of  nature 
should  be  "done  awa}^  with,"  is  quite  gratuitous.  The 
laws  of  nature,  in  her  seen  as  well  as  her  unseen  spheres, 
will  probably  continue  to  be  as  secure  and  inflexible  as 
the}^  have  been  hitherto,  undisturbed  by  the  anxieties  and 
misconstructions  of  fallible  professors. 

You  tell  us  (3)  that  "  the  authorit}^  of  the  whole  history 
of  science,  the  totality  of  all  known  natural  laws,"  confirm 
without  exception  "the  presupposition  of  a  universal  cau- 
sality." This  presupposition  is  made  justifiable  b}^  Spiritual- 
ism ;  but  it  is  not  the  authoritative  declaration  of  absolute 
science..  That  one  Mind  rules  in  the  universe  is  a  legiti- 
mate inference  from  all  the  science  we  have  thus  far  at- 
tained to  ;  but  science  cannot  assert  this  inference  as  a  part 
of  itself.  It  cannot  transcend  phenomena  and  enter  the 
realm  of  causalit}^,  without  leaving  its  own  domain,  and 
invading  another  where  it  cannot  exist  as  science.  Indeed, 
your  views  of  a  universal  causalit}^  "confirmed  by  the 
authority  of  the  whole  history  of  science,"  are  quite  op- 
posed to  the  conclusions  of  the  great  majority  of  the  sci- 
entific naturalists  of  our  day. 

Professor  Newcomb,  one  of  the  leading  men  of  science 
in  America,  in  an  address  delivered  recently  at  St.  Louis 
before  the  American  Scientific  Association,  contradicts,  in 
the  following  words,  your  whole  statement.  He  says : 
' '  The  entire  course  of  nature  is  a  series  of  mechanical 
sequences,  from  which  all  interference  from  outside  causa- 
tion is  entirely  excluded."  In  this  view  (which  I  do  not 
accept),  most  of  the  physicists  of  our  day  concur. 

Even  Kant  tells  us  that  the  idea  of  cause,  and  also  the 


96  REPLY   TO    WtJNDT. 

belief  that  every  commencing  phenomenon  implies  the 
operation  of  a  cause,  are  merely  forms  of  our  understand- 
ing, subjective  conditions  of  human  thought.  You  must 
have  been  well  aware,  too,  that  Hume  is  far  from  admitting 
your  assertion.  He  contends  that  all  we  see  or  know  is 
mere  succession,  antecedent  and  consequent ;  that  having 
seen  things  in  this  relation,  we  associate  them  together, 
and  imagining  that  there  is  some  vinculum  or  connection 
between  them,  we  call  the  one  the  cause,  and  the  other  the 
effect.  Thus  3'our  claim  that  your  views  in  regard  to  cau- 
sation are  a  part  of  science  does  not  hold  good,  —  since 
speculations  as  to  primary  causation  transcend  phenomena 
which  are  the  limits  to  which  human  science  is  confined. 

Your  assertion  (4)  that  the  eminent  naturalists  who  sat- 
isfied themselves  of  the  objectivity  and  genuineness  of  the 
Slade  phenomena  • '  announce  that  causahty  has  a  flaw,"  is 
an  unwarrantable  perversion  or  an  erroneous  paraphrase 
of  their  language,  made  to  suit  j^our  own  peculiar  purpose. 
The  statement  falls  along  with  3'our  other  assumptions. 

You  criticise  the  conditions  under  which  the  medial  phe- 
nomena are  produced  ;  but  as  these  conditions  can  be  intel- 
ligentlj'  judged  only  by  a  person  long  and  practically^  ac- 
quainted with  the  subject,  I  shall  not  pause  here  to  con- 
sider them.  Nor  is  it  necessaiy  for  me  to  analj'ze  3'our 
account  of  3'our  own  seance  with  Mr.  Slade,  at  which 
various  "experiments"  occurred,  concerning  which  3-ou 
confess  that  3'ou  cannot  "  express  a  conjecture"  as  to  how 
the3''  were  done. 

Referring  to  3'our  own  inability  to  explain  the  experi- 
ments, and  to  Mr.  Slade's  inabilit3^  to  disclose  the  modus 
operandi,  3^  ou  remark  : 

"What  was  surprising  to  me  in  the  matter,  however, 
and  what  will  also  surprise  3^ou,  is  that  Mr.  Slade  also 
refused  to  give  an3"  information  of  this  kind.  He  is  a  ni"- 
dium^  he  is  an  experimenter^  and  he  must  therefore  know 


SPIRITUALISM    AS    A    SCIENTIFIC    QUESTION.  97 

nnder  what  conditions  the  phenomena  have  their  origin. 
He  asserts  that  he  knows  nothing  of  them,  but  that  his 
relation  is  a  perfect!}^  passive  one.  The  latter,  however,  is 
plainly  untrue,  shice  the  phenomena  generally  appear  only 
in  the  seances  held  by  him,  and  also,  as  a  rule,  in  the  order 
in  which  he  wishes  to  produce  them." 

That  3'ou,  a  philosopher  and  a  man  of  science,  should 
venture  to  discourse  upon  a  great,  complex,  and  momen- 
tous subject,  occupying  at  this  moment  the  attention  of 
milkons  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  requiring  a  great 
amount  of  stud}^  and  investigation  for  its  proper  under- 
standing,—  with  the  ver}^  rudiments  of  which  sabject,  if 
we  may  judge  from  the  baseless  vituperation  in  the  pre- 
ceding paragraph,  you  are  as  3^et  unacquainted,  —  is  in- 
deed a  matter  of  surprise.  You  make  a  medium  the 
equivalent  of  an  "experimenter."  In  this  3'ou  exalt  your 
own  crude  and  random  theorj^  above  the  empirical  knowl- 
edge of  all  those  who  have  long  and  faithfull}'  investigated 
the  subject  of  mediumship.  A  medium  is  not  regarded  as 
the  real  "experimenter";  and  Slade,  if  he  is  a  medium, 
tells  the  truth  in  saying  that  his  relation  is  a  passive  one. 
Both  3'our  reasons  for  charging  him  with  mendacit}^  are 
plainly  the  promptings  of  ignorance.  They  are  frivolous, 
and  they  are  erroneous.  One  of  your  reasons  is  that  "the 
phenomena  generallj^  appear  only  in  the  seances  held  b}^ 
him."  On  the  contrar}^,  phenomena,  some  of  them  more 
surprising  than  those  in  his  presence,  and  under  conditions 
more  satisfactory,  have  been  given  in  America  by  Watkins, 
Powell,  Phillips,  Mrs.  Simpson,  and  by  some  private  me- 
diums who  decline  to  take  money  for  the  exhibition. 

Your  second  reason,  namely,  that  the  phenomena  appear, 
"  as  a  rule,  in  the  order  in  which  he  wishes  to  produce 
them,"  is  an  assumption  which,  while  it  may  be  true  in 
what  it  asserts,  is  false  in  what  it  omits.  The  theory  is, 
that  if  Slade  wishes  to  produce  phenomena  in  a  certain 
7 


98  REPLY   TO    WUNDT, 

order,  it  is  because  the  impressions  he  gets  from  his  so- 
called  "controls"  incline  him  to  choose  that  order.  Your 
two  reasons  for  charging  untruthfulness  on  him  do  not 
stand  the  first  incision  of  intelligent  analj'-sis. 

You  wind  up  your  abuse  of  Slade  (w^hose  uniform  hon- 
est}' I  neither  vouch  for  nor  deny)  with  the  remark,  that 
this  question  of  the  reality  or  non-reality  of  the  spiritual- 
istic phenomena  would  be  for  3^ou  "an  extremely  paiafal 
one,"  if  3'ou  "had  to  regard  as  excluded  every  possible 
explanation  of  the  phenomena  in  a  natural  way ;  in  a  way 
which  leaves  the  universal  law  of  causation  untouched." 

Causation  again  !  Violation  of  nature  again  !  My  dear 
philosopher,  be  comforted.  The  appearance  of  a  spirit  in 
this  mundane  sphere,  if  it  actually  occurs,  must  be  a 
purely  natural  fact,  since  nature  embraces  all  demonstrable 
phenomena.  The  "  universal  law  of  causation  "  is  no  more 
violated  or  threatened  by  such  a  fact  than  it  is  when  a 
balloon  goes  up  in  the  air,  or  when  a  painless  surgical 
operation  is  performed  while  the  patient  is  under  the  effect 
of  chloroform.  May  it  not  be  that  it  is  because  3'ou  look 
through  such  a  haze  of  mediaeval  apprehension  and  dread, 
that  Spiritualism  assumes  the  amorphous  aspect,  the  sin- 
ister colors,  it  does,  in  your  ej^es? 

You  admit,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  that  view  of  Ulrici 
and  of  most  Spiritualists,  which  regards  the  manifesting 
spirits  as  those  of  our  deceased  fellow-men,  who  advise  us 
in  this  way  of  their  survival  and  their  condition  after 
death;  and  you  ask,  "What  significance  have  the  phe- 
nomena then?" 

Ulrici,  it  appears,  has  ventured  the  opinion  that  their 
significance  lies,  above  all  else,  in  the  fact  that  nothing 
could  more  powerfully  strengthen  our  faith  in  a  supreme 
moral  government  of  the  world,  nothing  more  surely  coun- 
teract the  materialism  and  indifferentism  of  the  time,  tlian 
the  certainty  of  immortality. 


SPIRITUALISM   AS   A   SCIENTIFIC   QUESTION.  99 

The  same  view  was  held  by  the  late  I.  H.  Fichte,  of 
Stuttgard  (an  illustrious  and  venerable  name  !),  who  antici- 
pated great  benefit  to  the  cause  of  religion  and  morality 
from  an  enlightened  Spiritualism.  His  words  are  :  ''Here 
in  the  earth-life  we  have  it  in  our  power  to  seize  our  future 
destination."  And  he  considered  this  a  verj^  serious  rev- 
elation at  a  time  when  mankind  have  long  since  become 
accustomed  to  displace  their  care  for  the  future  from  their 
dail}^  routine,  as  a  consideration  not  affecting  their  interests. 

These  anticipations  are  in  full  accord  with  those  held  by 
most  Spiritualists,  and  seem  to  me  eminent!}^  reasonable 
and  apt.  Imagine  a  time  when  generations  of  well-born 
children  shall  be  brought  up  in  the  confident  knowledge  of 
immortality ;  when  the  laws  of  pre-natal  and  post-natal 
influence  shall  be  understood  and  heeded  ;  when  a  man 
shall  realize  that  what  he  thinks  and  does,  he  thinks  and 
does  for  eternit}^,  —  and  shall  be  sensible  that  a  cloud  of 
witnesses,  the  great  and  good  of  the  past,  as  well  as  his 
own  departed  relatives  and  friends,  not  to  speak  of  the 
Supreme  Intelligence  itself,  have  his  inmost  thoughts  and 
most  secret  acts  literallj-  within  then-  ken; — and  I  can 
conceive  of  no  possible  evangel  more  likely  to  control  a 
man  for  good,  strengthen  the  best  and  most  elevating  im- 
pulses by  which  he  is  actuated,  and  keep  him  reverently 
lo3^al  to  divine  law  as  expressed  in  his  own  organization 
and  the  facts  of  the  universe.  What  can  be  more  touching 
and  noble  than  the  written  prayer  of  the  young  prince  im- 
perial, slain  by  the  Zulu  savages  in  1879,  and  whose  father, 
Louis  Napoleon,  like  himself,  was  a  Spiritualist:  "Grant, 
O  God,  that  my  heart  may  be  penetrated  with  the  convic- 
tion that  those  whom  I  love,  and  who  are  deceased,  can 
see  all  my  actions.  Help  me  that  my  life  shall  be  worthy 
of  their  witness,  and  my  innermost  thought  shall  never 
make  them  blush." 

From  considerations  like  these  you  dissent  with  emphatic 


100  REPLY   TO    WUNDT. 

energj'.  You  tell  us  that  Ulrici  acknowledges,  indeed, 
that  the  written  communications  of  the  spirits  "  haA^e  a 
very  insignificant  content,"  and  that  their  other  perform- 
ances also  seem  to  be  substantially  to  no  purpose  ;  but  that 
he  consoles  himself  with  the  thought  that  ' '  the  principle  of 
development  will  also  find  its  application  in  the  other  life^  so 
that  the  souls  of  the  dead  onlj^  gradually  attain  the  highest 
perfection  of  knowledge  and  will." 

A  doctrine  so  rational  and  just,  so  consistent  with  all  the 
analogies  revealed  in  ps3xhological  investigation,  and  so 
reconcilable  with  all  that  we  can  conceive  of  divine  good- 
ness, love,  and  wisdom,  would  seem  to  commend  itself  to  a 
philosopher  of  liberal  religious  proclivities.  But  j^ou  repu- 
diate it  as  if  the  spectral  aspect  of  the  old  vicarious  doc- 
trine had  interposed  to  warn  3'ou  off.  You  say :  "Here, 
unfortunately,  I  must  oppose  3'our  conclusions  in  the  most 
decided  manner.  I  hold  these  conclusions  to  be  as  false  as 
the}^  are  dangerous,  and  of  this  I  will  endeavor  to  convince 
3^ou  and  your  readers." 

Your  endeavor  is  a  most  signal  failure,  made  the  more 
manifest  by  the  solemn  confidence  with  which  3'ou  intro- 
duce it.  The  Spiritual  doctrine  is  in  harmony  with  all  the 
lofty  religious  thought  of  the  age,  even  among  those  who 
do  not  recognize  Spiritualism.  Your  own  thought  is  medi- 
aeval and  retrograde.  You  begin  by  charging  upon  Ulrici 
the  assumption  that  phenomena,  similar  to  those  of  Spirit- 
ualism, "  have  never  been  observed  in  former  times."  And 
you  really  seem  to  think  that  you  have  made  a  discover}^, 
of  which  Spiritualists  have  been  ignorant  up  to  this  time, 
and  that  3'ou  will  bring  them  to  confusion  by  your  superior 
sagacit}'.  But  the  ignorance  is  all  on  jour  side,  since  3'ou 
assume  what  is  contrary  to  notorious  facts. 

Instead  of  supposing  that  "  similar  phenomena  have  never 
been  observed  in  former  times,"  Spiritualists  have  from  the 
first  maintained,  as  one  of  the  most  important  of  their  ere- 


SPIRITUALISM   AS   A    SCIENTIFIC   QUESTION.  Itl 

dentials,  the  striking  fact  that  the  present  phenomena  are 
corroborated  and  iUustrated  b}^  those  of  all  past  ages.  We 
find  them  in  the  mj^hologies  and  oracles  of  the  ancients ; 
in  the  Hebrew  and  Christian  Scriptures ;  na3%  even  in  the 
evidences  given  in  Mr.  E.  B.  Tylor's  "Primitive  Culture," 
of  the  universality  of  the  spiritual  belief  among  savage 
tribes,  as  far  back  as  history  or  the  knowledge  got  from 
prehistoric  facts,  revealed  in  geological  investigations, 
can  go. 

You  refer  to  the  history  of  witchcraft  up  to  the  17th 
century  as  if  you  thought  that  you  were  enlightening  Spir- 
itualists in  regard  to  the  analogy  between  man}^  of  its  phe- 
nomena and  those  of  the  ]present  time.  But  3'ou  will  find 
that  the  real  facts  of  witchcraft,  disengaged  from  much 
that  was  purely  chimerical,  fancifully  subjective,  or  wan- 
tonly false,  are  accepted  by  Spiritualists  as  part  of  their 
own  phenomena. 

In  a  work,*  originall}"  published  in  1868,  I  say:  "The 
annals  of  the  race  are  full  of  these  phenomena,  back  to  the 
first  dawn  of  authentic  histor3^  The}"  have  been  interro- 
gated and  examined  in  a  different  spirit  during  the  last 
quarter  of  a  century  ;  and  that  is  the  only  respect  in  which 
they  can  be  said  to  differ  from  many  of  the  phenomena  of 
witchcraft,  necromancy,  somnambulism,  mesmerism,  &c., 
so  long  known  and  disputed." 

Blackstone,  the  great  Enghsh  legal  authority  (1723-80), 
says,  in  his  Commentaries  :  "  To  deny  the  possibility,  nay, 
actual  existence  of  witchcraft  and  sorcery,  is  at  once  flatly 
to  contradict  the  revealed  Word  of  God  ;  .  .  .  and  the 
thing  itself  is  a  truth  to  which  every  nation  in  the  world 
hath  borne  testimon}^,  either  by  examples  seemingly  well 
attested,  or  by  prohibitory  laws,  which,  at  least,  suppose 
the  possibility  of  commerce  with  evil  spirits." 

*  See  "  Planchette,  or  the  Despair  of  Science,"  p.  8.    A  seventh  edition  of  the 
work  was  published  by  Roberts  Brothers,  Boston,  in  1880. 


102  REPLY    TO    WUNDT. 

Mr.  Lecky,  in  his  "  Histoiy  of  Rationalism "  (1864), 
shows  that  the  wisest  men  in  Europe  shared  in  the  beUef 
of  the  witchcraft  phenomena.  For  hundreds  of  years  no 
man  of  an}^  account  rejected  it.  Lord  Bacon  could  not 
divest  himself  of  it.  Shakespeare  accepted  it,  as  did  the 
most  enlightened  of  his  contemporaries.  Glanvil,  Henry 
More,  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  and  other  eminent  thinkers, 
strenuouslj^  asserted  it. 

You  refer  to  these  phenomena  as  "  lamentable  expres- 
sions of  a  corrupting  superstition."  A  more  enlightened 
acquaintance  with  well-attested  facts  would  convince  3'ou 
that  the  superstition  was  not  in  the  admission  of  certain 
objective  phenomena,  but  in  the  unscientific  demonphobia 
which  led  men  to  misinterpret  them,  to  lay  a  superstitious 
stress  upon  the  old  Hebrew  prohibitions,  made  in  ignorance 
and  fear,  and  to  allow  the  Church  to  dictate  to  the  Legisla- 
ture as  to  the  construction  to  be  put  on  the  manifestations. 
There  are  ' '  lamentable  expressions  "  of  evil  in  human  na- 
ture ;  and  there  ma}'  be  "  lamentable  expressions"  of  evil 
among  spirits,  who  are  but  the  continuations  of  human 
nature  into  another  stage  of  being. 

And  now  3'ou  and  other  men  of  science  are  repeating  the 
bad  work  which  the  priestl}^  power,  aided  by  the  civil,  did 
in  former  times.  You  are  laboring  to  give  the  impression 
that  these  phenomena  are  not  in  the  order  of  nature,  and 
that  therefore  they  must  either  be  repudiated  as  not  occur- 
ring, or  else  regarded  with  that  sort  of  horror  which  the 
idea  of  the  uncanny  and  the  unnatural  awakens. 

The  witchcraft  frenz3%  bursting  beyond  the  limits  of 
genuine  phenomena,  led  to  the  grossest  falsehoods,  the 
most  grotesque  exaggerations,  and  the  most  merciless  per- 
secutions ;  and  this  for  the  simple  reason  that  men,  women, 
and  children,  who  wished  to  bring  an  enemy  to  destruction, 
or,  for  some  profital)le  reason,  to  put  him  out  of  the  way, 
found  a  very  simple  means  by  fixing  upon  him  or  her  the 


SPIRITUALISM    AS    A    SCIENTIFIC    QUESTION.  103 

suspicion  of  practising  witchcraft.  But  what  chance  could 
the  counterfeit  have  had  if  there  had  not  been  a  basis  ot 
the  genuine? 

If  there  had  been  but -a  few  eminent  men  in  those  da^'s, 
practical!}^  acquainted  with  the  great  facts  of  somnambulism, 
mesmerism,  and  modern  Spiritualism,  in  their  purely  scien- 
tific bearings,  they  could  have  arrested  the  whole  terrible 
delusion.  And  if  any  such  outbreak  should  occur  again, 
the  men  who  will  appease  the  public  alarm,  and  eliminate 
from  the  manifestations  eveiy  element  of  superstition,  T\'ould 
be,  not  the  doctors  and  philosophers,  who,  like  yourself, 
are  now  making  the  outcry  that  the  phenomena  violate 
natural  laws,  but  the  men  who  have  carefully  studied  and 
witnessed  them,  and  who  know  that  they  actuallj^  occur 
under  certain  abnormal  conditions. 

You  may  smile  at  the  thought  that  any  such  "  delusion" 
should  prevail  in  this  scientific  age  ;  but  jou.  must  be  im- 
perfectl}^  acquainted  with  the  facts  if  you  do  not  know  that 
phenomena  in  complete  analogy  with  those  of  witchcraft 
have  occurred  sporadicall}'  up  to  the  present  time.  In 
many  families  the  stone-throwing  manifestations,  levita- 
tions,  bell-ringing,  the  dressing~up  of  grotesque  figures, 
mocking  messages  written  independentlj^  of  human  agenc^^, 
have  occurred  under  circumstances  that  bar  out  the  theoiy 
of  human  fraud. 

If  3^ou  wish  to  become  acquainted  with  a  thoroughl^^ 
authenticated  history  of  occurrences  indicating  the  diablerie 
of  modern  witchcraft,  I  would  refer  3'ou  to  the  account  of 
those  which  took  place  in  the  house  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Phelps, 
at  Stratford,  Conn.,  from  March,  1850,  to  December,  1851. 
You  will  find  a  full  report  of  the  case  in  ' '  Modern  Spirit- 
ualism, by  E.  Capron,"  (Boston,  1855,)  a  work  of  candor 
and  ability.  In  the  year  1850  I  had  a  letter  on  the  subject 
from  Dr.  Phelps  himself,  and  pubhshed  it  in  the  "  Boston 
Daily  Transcript,"  which  I  was  editing  at  the  time.     It 


104  REPLY   TO    WUNDT. 

fully  authenticates  the  accounts  of  mj'sterious  writlngg 
■without  human  aid,  the  dressing-up  of  figures,  the  move- 
ment of  objects,  the  throwing  of  stones,  etc.  Dr.  Phelps 
was  a  man  highlj^  respected,  sincere,  and  intelligent.  The 
phenomena  were  confirmed  as  supra-human  b}^  the  most 
ample  testimony.  His  clear  and  thoroughly' -tested  facts 
have  never  been  disproved,  and  they  have  been  corroborated 
by  many  similar  occurrences  of  more  recent  date. 

The  ' '  lamentable  expressions  of  a  corrupting  supersti- 
tion" were,  3'ou  must  remember,  not  confined  to  the  lowly 
and  obscure.  The  leading  divines,  lawyers,  and  legislators 
were  under  its  influence.  Their  error  was  not  in  believing, 
but  in  misinterpreting  facts.  Do  5'ou  imagine  they  would 
have  countenanced  the  atrocities  perpetrated  on  innocent 
persons,  unless  the}^  had  become  convinced,  by  observation 
and  by  testimon}',  of  certain  objective  phenomena,  which 
in  their  ignorance  and  alarm  they  construed  as  unnatural  ? 
Suddenly  a  reaction  took  place.  In  Boston,  several  be- 
lievers publicly  underwent  penance  in  church,  for  their  im- 
pious and  merciless  credulity.  It  was  as  if  the  community 
had  awakened  all  at  once  from  a  dreadful  nightmare.  One 
day  witchcraft  seemed  a  fixed  fact,  and  the  next  it  was 
spurned  and  trodden  out.  Unquestionably,  with  much 
that  was  fanatical  and  false,  much  that  was  true  was  also 
stricken  from  the  popular  belief.  From  one  extreme  men 
went  to  the  other,  and  a  public  opinion  adv^erse  to  the  phe- 
nomena, real  and  spurious,  checked  the  development  of 
mediums  for  the  next  century  and  a  half. 

You  put  this  question  to  Ulrici :  "  What  conception  must 
we  form  of  the  condition  of  our  deceased  fellow-men,  if 
3^ our  view  is  correct  ?  "  And  you  think  that  he  can  urge 
"no  material  objections"  against  certain  conclusions  of 
your  own,  the  first  of  which  is  as  follows  : 

' '  Physically  the  souls  of  our  dead  fall  into  the  bondage  of 
certain  living  men,  the  so-called  mediums.    These  mediums 


SPIRITUALISM    AS    A    SCIENTIFIC    QUESTION.  105 

are,  at  present  at  any  rate,  not  very  widely  spread,  and 
appear  to  belong  almost  exclusively  to  the  American  nation- 
ality. At  the  command  of  the  mediums,  the  souls  execute 
mechanical  performances,  which  bear  throughout  the  char- 
acter of  purposelessness  ;  they  knock,  lift  tables  and  chairs, 
play  harmoniums,  &c." 

Here  is  a  series  of  charges,  every  one  of  which  is,  to  put 
it  mildly,  a  mistake:  (1)  The  spirits  are  not  in  bondage 
to  the  mediums.  By  what  logical  process  a  medium  can  be 
converted  into  a prmc2pa?,  you  do  not  explain.  (2)  The 
mediums  are  not  "  almost  exclusive^  "  American.  Home, 
one  of  the  earliest  of  the  famous  mediums,  was  a  Scotch- 
man ;  Mr.  Williams,  Mr.  Eglinton,  Miss  Florence  Cook, 
Miss  Wood,  Mrs.  Guppy,  Mr.  Duguid,  Mrs.  Esperance, 
Dr.  Monck,  and  some  twenty  others  of  note,  are  all  English 
or  Scotch.  (3)  The  souls  do  not^  "  at  the  command  of 
the  mediums,"  execute  mechanical  performances.  The 
phenomena  are  not  producible  at  the  will  of  the  medium. 
(4)  The  performances  do  not  "  bear  throughout  the  char- 
acter of  purposelessness." 

You  say  that  to  knock  or  move  a  table  is  a  "  purposeless  " 
act.  Suppose  3^ou  were  shut  up  in  an  enclosure  from  which 
you  could  not  escape,  and  wished  to  make  it  known  to  the 
outside  world  of  your  friends  that  you  were  still  alive  ;  — ■ 
would  it  be  so  very  "  purposeless  "  an  act  for  you  to  try  by 
knocks  or  movements  to  make  the  fact  of  3'our  existence 
known?  The  spirit,  limited  to  certain  conditions,  sees  that 
the  friends  he  has  left  behind  on  earth  believe  that  death  is 
the  end  of  being.  Yv^ould  any  knock,  movement,  or  musical 
sound,  by  which  he  could  tr}^  to  dispel  the  delusion,  be  a 
"purposeless"  or  undignified  act?  George  Herbert  tells 
us  that  he  who  "sweeps  a  room,"  in  accordance  with  the 
divine  sense  of  duty,  dignifies  the  act.  May  not  the  motive 
transfigure  the  character  of  the  spirit's  humble  attempt  to 
gain  recognition  by  a  knock  or  the  moving  of  a  table  ? 


106  REPLY   TO   WUNDT. 

The  independent  movement  may  be  a  very  trivial  act  in 
itself,  but  when  it  is  done  without  the  application  of  any 
known  human  or  mechanical  force,  it  becomes  so  important 
in  the  eyes  of  Faraday,  Haeckel,  Youmans,  and  other 
physicists,  as  to  assume  the  character  of  a  miracle,  which 
they  must  repudiate.  Can  an  incredible  act  be  a  wholly 
purposeless  act? 

Your  whole  letter  illustrates  the  importance  of  studying 
a  subject  thoroughly  before  undertaking  to  pronounce  upon 
it.  You  sa}^ :  "The  assumption  that  the  beings  of  some 
other  world  unknown  to  us  would  naturallj"  resemble  us,  not 
only  in  their  bodily  constitution,  but  also  in  their  dress,  has 
to  me  only  a  very  slight  probabilit3^"  Slight  or  not,  j^our 
notions  of  the  probable  must  give  way  to  facts.  The  spirits 
or  angels  of  the  Bible  come  in  the  form  of  human  beings, 
suitably  clad ;  and  the  modern  materialization  phenomena 
show  that  spirits  can  often  create  for  themselves  some 
characteristic  or  emblematic  garb,  or  at  least  what  appears 
such  to  human  senses.  In  nearl}'  all  the  best  authenticated 
accounts  of  apparitions,  the  spirit  has  come  robed  either  in 
garments  similar  to  those  of  the  earth-life,  or  in  "  raiment 
shining,  exceeding  white  as  snow  ;  so  as  no  fuller  on  earth 
can  white  them." 

If  3'ou  had  ever  given  a  day's  faithful  stud}^  to  the  sub- 
ject, 3'ou  would  have  learned  that  the  forms  and  the  clothing, 
in  which  the  materializing  spirits  appear,  are  assumed 
transientl}^,  often  for  the  simple  purpose  of  identification. 
They  are  not  regarded  as  the  abiding  forms  and  clothing  of 
the  spirit.  You  make  merrj^  over  the  notion  that  a  male 
spirit  should  appear  with  a  foot  deformed  by  a  tight  shoe  ; 
and  3'OU  facetiousl}^  remark:  "The  thought  that  hard- 
hearted shoemakers  might,  even  in  the  next  world,  continue 
their  attempts  to  improve  the  anatomical  structure  of  our 
feet,  gives  me  great  uneasiness." 

Such  facetiousness  can  amuse  only  the  ignorant ;  for  it 


SPIRITUALISM    AS    A    SCIENTIFIC    QUESTION.  107 

is  founded  on  a  gross,  unspirituai  misconception.  Admit 
that  a  spirit  can  present  a  palpable  and  tangible  repre- 
sentation of  the  earth-body,  or  of  any  part  of  it  as  it  was 
at  a  certain  period  of  its  mortal  existence  :  it  does  not  follow 
that  the  spirit  is  itself  "  transformed  into  matter,"  as  you 
wildly  imagine. 

Of  the  spiritual  body,  the  Rev.  Joseph  Cook  (who  is  not 
a  Spiritualist),  remarks  :  "  It  is  a  body,  which  apparently 
makes  nothing  of  passing  through  what  we  call  ordinary 
matter.  Our  Lord  had  that  body  after  his  resurrection. 
He  appeared  suddenly  in  the  midst  of  his  disciples,  although 

the  doors  were  shut We  must  not  forget  that  this 

conclusion  is  proclaimed  in  the  name  of  the  philosophy  of 
the  severest  sort.  The  verdict  is  scientific  ;  it  happens  also 
to  be  biblical." 

Because  it  was  Christ's  spiritual  body  that  passed  into 
the  room  with  shut  doors,  it  does  not  follow  that  it  Was  his 
spiritual  body  which  became  visible  to  his  disciples.  He 
had,  as  a  sjDirit,  the  power  of  improvising  and  externalising 
a  material  representation  of  the  earth-body  with  its  wounds. 
The  history  of  modern  Spiritualism  is  full  of  similar  phe- 
nomena. Christ  came  to  show  that  death  is  a  delusion, 
and  that  man  is  potentially  a  man  still,  after  the  dissolution 
of  all  that  is  mortal  of  him. 

Another  spirit  wishes  to  show  that  he  has  intelligence ; 
that  his  affections  are  unchanged  ;  that  he  has  not  lost  his 
love  of  music.  So  he  sends  loving  messages  ;  so  he  plays 
on  the  harmonium  a  tune,  known,  j)erhaps,  as  his  favorite, 
to  some  one  present.  Shall  we  condemn  it  as  a  purpose- 
less act  ?     You  say  : 

"  The  moral  condition  of  the  souls  seems  to  be  relatively 
the  most  favorable.  According  to  all  the  evidence,  the 
character  of  harmlessness  cannot  be  denied  them.  It  shows 
itself  particularly  in  the  fact  that  they  hold  it  to  be  neces- 
sary to  make  excuses  for  proceedings  of  a  somewhat  brutal 


108  REPLY   TO   WUNDT. 

nature,  in  case  of  becoming  guilty  of  such  —  as,  for  instance, 
the  dcGtruction  of  a  bed-screen,  with  a  politeness  which,  in 
a  ghost,  is  certain]_y  deserving  of  acknowledgment.  This 
harmlessness,  therefore,  gives  us  a  right  to  expect  some- 
thing good  of  their  other  moral  qualities,  concerning  which 
nothing  particular  is  known." 

Upon  this  you  remark  :  "  Pardon  me  if  I  seem  to  joke." 
You  may  rest  assured  that  no  apology  is  needed ;  your 
jocular  allusions  are  of  so  mild  and  harmless  a  quality,  that 
their  point  is  not  felt  by  anj'  one  versed  in  Spiritualism. 
A  bed -screen  was  destroyed,  and  the  operating  forces  (to 
which  3^ou  choose  to  give  the  name  of  ghosts)  politely  made 
excuses.  "  This  harmlessness,"  you  sa}^,  gives  you  "a  right 
to  expect  something  good  of  their  other  moral  qualities, 
concerning  tvJdcJi  nothing  particular  is  knoivn."  Known  by 
yourself^  —  you  should  have  added.  The  "other  moral 
qualities  "  of  the  supposed  spirits  have  been  expressed  in  a 
multiplicity  of  forms.  As  the  theor}^  is  that  there  are  all 
grades  of  good  and  bad,  stupid  and  intelligent,  in  spirit- 
life  as  well  as  in  this,  we  get  just  what  we  ought  to  expect, 
if  our  expectations  are  based  on  well-established  facts. 

You  charge  Ulrici  with  "suddenly  throwing  overboard 
all  principles  of  scientific  investigation,  in  order  to  find  in 
the  revelations  of  rapping  spirits  the  means  of  supplement- 
ing our  insight  into  the  order  of  the  world  ; "  and  you  ask, 
in  your  consternation,  "Whence  is  the  scientific  investi- 
gator to  get  courage  and  perseverance  for  his  work,  if  the 
laws  of  nature,  according  to  the  prospect  which  j^ou  open, 
are  approaching  a  point  where  they  shall  be  done  away 
with?" 

I  have  already  answered  your  constantly-recurring  ques- 
tion on  this  point.  Let  me  answer  it  again,  since  it  ex- 
presses the  great  objection  of  those  scientific  specialists, 
who  become  very  unscientific  the  moment  the  subject  of 
Spiritualism  comes  up.     From  the  connection  of  the  phe* 


SPIRITUALISM    AS    A    SCIENTIFIC    QUESTION.  109 

nomena  with  ph3'siological  conditions,  the}'  appear  to  be  as 
piirel}'  a  part  of  nature  as  the  phenomena  of  the  living 
organism.  When  an  instrument  is  played  on  without  human 
agenc3',  when  a  medium  is  lifted  to  the  ceiling,  when  inde- 
pendent writing  is  produced  under  conditions  without  a 
flaw,  when  objects  are  independently  moved  from  place  to 
place  in  broad  daj^light,  when  human  forms  appear  pal- 
pably,—  the  manifestations  have  their  objective  as  well  as 
their  subjective  side.  The}^  are  as  much  entitled  to  scientific 
scrutiny  as  any  other  phenomena  in  nature  ;  and  to  say  that 
thej'  are  supernatural,  is  plainl}'  to  prejudge  the  question 
ignorantly. 

The  reputation  of  the  late  Baden  Powell  (1796-1850) 
of  England,  is  perhaps  not  unknown  to  3'ou.  He  was 
Savilian  professor  of  geometry  at  Oxford,  and  a  profoundly 
scientific  thinker.  He  believed  that  spiritual  phenomena 
would  be  recognized  as  a  part  of  the  domain  of  nature,  and 
become  a  subject  for  philosophic  investigation.  His  pre- 
diction has  been  already  verified,  as  the  writings  of  Wallace, 
Varle}^,  Crookes,  Fichte,  Franz  Hoffman,  Zollner,  Bout- 
lerof,  Hare,  Wagner,  aud  other  men  of  science,  amplj^  show. 
Referring  to  supersensual  phenomena,  Powell  says:  '°In 
such  cases,  science  has  not  j^et  advanced  to  any  generaliza- 
tions ;  results  only  are  presented,  which  have  not  as  jet 
been  traced  to  laws  ;  yet  no  inductive  inquirer  for  a  moment 
doubts  that  these  classes  of  phenomena  are  all  really  con- 
nected by  some  great  principle  of  order.  If,  then,  some 
peculiar  manifestations  should  appear  of  a  more  extraor- 
dinary character,  still  less  apparentl}^  reducible  to  an}'  known 
principles,  it  could  not  he  doubted  by  any  pliilosop)hiG  mind 
that  they  were  in  reality  harmonious  and  conspiring  parts  of 
some  higher  series  of  causes  as  yet  undiscovered.  The  most 
formidable  outstanding  apparent  anomalies  v/ill,  at  some 
future  time,  undoubtedly  be  found  to  merge  in  great  and 
harmonious  laws,  the  connection  will  be  fully  made  out, 


110  REPLY   TO    WUNDT. 

and  the  claims  of  order,  continuity,  and  analogy,  eventually 
vindicated." 

This  is  the  large  and  liberal  scientific  view.  Let  it 
assuage  5'our  alarm,  my  dear  professor.  It  is  a  fall  and 
conclusive  repl}'  to  the  objections  of  supernaturalism,  vio- 
lation of  nature's  laws,  etc.,  brought  by  yourself,  and  b}' 
many  before  jou,  who  passed  sentence  on  Spiritualism 
before  the}^  had  studied  it. 

You  say,  that  "  the  worst  enemy  of  morality  has  alwaj's 
been  superstition."  Most  true.  But  whence  came  the 
superstition  during  the  witchcraft  craze  of  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries?  It  was  a  superstition,  I  repeat, 
that  affected  eminent  divines  like  Mather,  judges  like  Sewall, 
and  magistrates  like  Sir  William  Phipps  :  inciting  them  to 
countenance  the  persecutions  with  which  persons  suspected 
of  witchcraft  were  visited.  The  superstition  sprang  from 
an  ignorant  misconstruction  of  actual  phenomena,  and  was 
encouraged  by  the  bibliolatrj^,  the  bigotrj^,  and  the  fear 
influencing  the  action  of  priests  and  their  dupes.  In  ostra- 
cising these  now  common  phenomena  as  unnatural  or  super- 
natural, 3^ou  and  your  co-workers  are  doing  what  you  can 
to  discourage  a  scientific  investigation  into  their  origin.  To 
the  developments  of  the  present  day  you  are  opposing  the 
same  hindrances  and  superstitions  which  prevented  a  thor- 
oughly scientific  inquirj^  into  the  witchcraft  manifestations. 
You  would  stop  what  you  call  the  "  spiritualistic  nuisances  " 
prevailing  in  America  ;  and  by  this  3"0u  do  not  mean  that 
you  would  stop  the  abuses  and  the  credulities,  springing 
from  an  unscientific  manner  of  dealing  with  the  facts,  but 
the  facts  themselves.  You  would  repudiate  the  whole  great 
inquiry  as  something  contrary  to  the  order  of  nature  and 
the  laws  of  Divine  Causation.  Possibly  you  and  j^our 
helpers  may  succeed  in  checking  the  phenomena,  and  in 
putting  off  their  investigation  for  another  century  ;  but  I 
am  encouraged  b}"  the  signs  of  the  times  to  believe  that  you 


SPIRITUALISM   AS   A   SCIENTIFIC    QUESTION.  Ill 

will  be  defeated.      The  Sib}'!  presents  her  books  anew. 
Shall  we  reject  them  all? 

The  following  passage  from  jTour  letter  is  somewhat 
obscure  and  equivocal ;  but  I  will  trj'  to  do  it  justice  : 

"  The  moral  barbarism  produced  in  its  time  by  the  belief 
in  witchcraft,  would  have  been  precisel}^  the  same  if  there 
had  been  real  witches.  We  can,  therefore,  leave  the  question 
entirely  alone,  whether  or  not  you  have  ground  to  believe  in 
the  Spiritualistic  phenomena.  We  can  content  ourselves 
with  considering  the  question,  whether  the  objects  of  3'our 
belief  show  the  characteristic  signs  which  we  find  in  those 
objects  of  belief  which,  according  to  the  testimon}'  of  his- 
tory and  of  social  psychology,  we  must  call  prejudicial  to 
the  moral  development  of  man.  This  question,  after  the 
intimate  relation  which  we  have  shown  to  exist  between 
spiritualism  and  the  most  corrupt  forms  of  so-called  super- 
stition, can  onl}*  be  answered  in  the  affirmative." 

What  if  some  disbeliever  in  Christianity,  referring  to  the 
Inquisition,  or  to  the  atrocities  of  Philip  II.  of  Spain,  all 
instituted  in  the  interests  of  religion,  — or  to  the  obscenities 
of  the  Anabaptists  and  other  sects,  —  should  say:  ''The 
moral  barbarism  produced  in  its  time  by  the  belief  in 
Christianit}'.  would  have  been  i^recisely  the  same  if  Chris- 
tianity had  been  true.  Vfe  can,  therefore,  leave  the  ques- 
tion of  the  truth  of  Christianity  entirely  alone.  We  can 
content  ourselves  with  asking,  Was  it  found  prejudicial  to 
the  moral  development  of  man  ?  This  question  can  only  be 
answered  in  the  affirmative." 

Plausible  as  this  may  seem,  would  it  not  be  repudiated 
b}^  Christians  generally  as  a  view  narrow  and  unjust? 
Because  the  phenomena  of  witchcraft,  regarded  from  the 
standpoint  of  ignorance  and  rehgious  terror,  were  produc- 
tive of  evil,  does  it  follow  that  they  would  not  be  produc- 
tive of  good,  because  productive  of  knowledge,  if  regarded 
and  studied  with  scientific  coolness  and  philosophic  pre- 
cision, abstracted  from  all  superstition,  all  religious  super- 


112  REPLY   TO   WUNDT. 

fluity,  all  chimerical  dread  of  a  violation  of  nature's 
order  ? 

Among  the  "demoralizing  influences"  of  Spiritualism, 
you  instance  ' '  the  danger  of  estrangement  from  earnest 
work,  devoted  to  the  service  of  science  or  of  a  practical 
calling."  But  the  theory  is,  that  after  a  proper  amount  of 
im'estigation  and  discussion  by  competent  persons,  the 
facts  of  Spiritualism  will  be  as  well  understood  and  as  freeh' 
admitted  as  the  facts  of  chemistr}'  or  anatom}^ ;  that  coming 
generations  will  be  educated  in  a  knowledge  of  the  facts. 
If  this  view  is  correct,  it  will  only  be  a  few  specialists  with 
a  taste  for  the  stud}^,  who  will  be  "  estranged  from  earnest 
work  "  in  other  directions.  Your  alarm  here,  too,  is  wholly 
supererogatorj' . 

You  sa}^ :  "Of  far  greater  importance  are  the  unworthy 
conceptions  of  the  condition  of  the  spirit  after  death,  which 
these  phenomena  awaken,  and  which  find  their  analog}'  only 
in  the  so-called  animism  of  the  most  degraded  races." 
Twelve  lines  farther  on  3'ou  remark  : 

"Astonishingly,  however,  3' on  see  in  Spiritualism  nothing 
less  than  a  contrivance  of  Providence  for  counteracting  the 
materialism  of  the  present.  This  is  to  me  the  most  incom- 
prehensible part  of  your  essay.  I  see  in  Spiritualism,  on 
the  contrar}',  a  sign  of  the  materialism  and  the  barbarism 
of  our  time.  From  earl}^  times,  as  you  well  know,  mate- 
rialism has  had  two  forms  ;  the  one  denies  the  spiritual,  the 
other  transforms  it  into  matter.  The  latter  form  is  the 
older.  From  the  animism  of  the  popular  mythologies,  it 
passes  into  philosophy,  in  order  to  be  b}'  the  latter  grad- 
ually overcome.  As  civilized  barbarism  can  experience 
relapses  into  all  forms  of  primitive  conditions,  so  it  is  not 
spared  from  this  also.  That,  in  your  person,  philosophy 
too  has  shared  in  this  relapse,  I  count  most  melancholy." 

The  essential  question  is  not,  What  does  this  or  that  man, 
however  eminent,  imagine  will  be  the  effects?  —  but.  Is  it  a 
fact  of  nature  ?  If  that  is  once  settled  in  the  affirmative, 
the  true  wisdom  is  to  leave  the  results  to  Providence. 


SPIRITUALISM   AS    A    SCIENTIFIC   QUESTION.  113 

You  assume  that  it  is  "  an  unwortli}^  conception  of  the 
condition  of  the  spirit  after  death,"  to  suppose  that  it  may 
manifest  manj^  of  the  low  traits  of  character  which  it  mani- 
fested in  the  earth-life.  I  assume  that  the  identity  of  the 
individual  would  not  be  preserved,  unless  this  were  not  only 
possible  but  probable.  But  the  question  is  not,  Are  these 
things  estheticall}^  agreeable?  but,  Are  they  true? 

You  are  grieved  because  eminent  men  see  in  these  phe- 
nomena what  3"ou  are  pleased  to  call  "  a  contrivance  of 
Providence  for  counteracting  the  materialism  of  the  present." 
What  is  there  irreverent  or  irrational  in  the  opinion  ?  Just 
as  a  materialistic  science  dreamed  it  was  having  things  its 
own  wa}^,  —  driving  God  and  Spirit  out  of  men's  minds,  and 
educating  a  generation  of  unbelievers  in  regard  to  a  future 
life  and  the  reahties  of  the  unseen  world, — just  at  this 
critical  moment,  when  faith  in  aught  but  matter  and  motion 
seemed  to  be  dying  out  of  the  hearts  of  men,  —  up  starts 
this  ill-favored,  this  perplexing  and  exasperating  Spiritual- 
ism—  this  marplot  —  this  enfant  terrible  —  and  attracts,  I 
know  not  how  man}^  deserters  from  the  ranks  of  a  Saddu- 
cean  materialism.  It  has  already  carried  the  full  assurance 
of  immortality  to  millions  of  minds  all  over  the  world.  It 
has  converted  many  from  the  dn-est  unbehef ;  and  in  thirty- 
three  years  it  has  permeated  humanity  to  an  extent  unpar- 
alleled in  the  history  of  creeds.  If  there  are  such  beings 
as  spirits,  is  it  so  very  incredible  that  the  present  phenom- 
ena have  been  providentiall}^  permitted  ? 

You  see  in  Spiritualism  "  a  sign  of  the  materialism  and 
barbarism  of  our  times."  Here  again  the  essential  question 
is,  Are  the  phenomena  true  ?  If  so,  the  scientific  recogni- 
tion of  them  is  simply  a  sign  of  the  advancing  intelhgence 
of  our  times.  The  facts  appeal  to  different  minds  in  differ- 
ent ways,  according  to  our  state  of  receptivity.  That  a 
mischievous  construction  is  put  on  them  by  man}',  is  merelj^ 
to  say  that  every  great  gift  or  truth  from  God  may  be  mis- 
8* 


114  REPLY   TO    WUNDT. 

construed  or  abused.  The  vine  is  a  divine  gift,  but  from 
its  fruit  a  maddening  beverage  may  be  distilled.  That  a 
good  and  profitable  construction  is  put  on  the  phenomena 
by  man}",  has  been  proved  bj^  their  changed  lives  and 
characters,  and  by  their  rising  to  a  comprehension  of  the 
immense  significance  of  an  immortal  life. 

What  you  call  "the  animism*  of  the  popular  m3'tho]o- 
gies,"  is  simply  a  belief  in  the  objectivity  of  apparitions  ; 
which,  as  an  apparition  is  something  that  appears^  would 
seem  to  be  a  not  wholl}^  unreasonable  theor}'.  Transferred 
to  our  own  day,  in  Europe  and  America,  the  belief  becomes, 
in  3'our  opinion,  "  civilized  barbarism."  Now,  if  3-ou  hac 
studied  with  proper  attention  the  subject  in  regard  to  which 
you  affect  an  oracular  tone,  3'ou  would  have  learned  thai 
this  same  animism^  with  the  variations  attributable  to 
different  intellectual  grades,  permeates  the  entire  pneuma- 
tolog3"  of  the  Hebrew  and  Christian  Scriptures  ;  that  it  was 
held  and  illustrated  in  his  own  person  by  Christ ;  believed 
in  b3"  his  apostles,  and  b3^  John  the  Eevelator ;  and  that  it 
was  most  distinctl3''  the  faith  of  the  earl3"  Christian  fathers, 
down  to  the  fifth  centuiy,  as  the  writings  of  Tertullian, 
Origen,  and  others  indicate. 

What  these  "degraded  races,"  of  whose  animism  3-ou 
have  such  a  horror,  really'  believed,  in  respect  to  immor- 
talit3',  was  clearl3'  based  on  certain  objective  facts,  veiy 
common  in  our  own  da3",  and  which  our  new  ps3'cho -physi- 
cal science  is  destined  to  stud3^  and  co-ordinate :  —  facts 
tending  to  show  that  the  spirit  is  the  man  himself ;  that  his 
personalit3"  is  permanent.  But  that  new  organisms  ma3'  be 
evolved  as  adaptations  to  the  progressive  stages  of  his 
existence  is,  perhaps,  among  the  possibilities. 

If  you  choose,  like  some  of  the  English  atheists,  Leslie 

*  A  word  appropriated  by  Mr.  E  B.  Tylor,  in  liis  "  Primitive  Culture,"  to 
express  the  recognition,  throughout  all  the  races  of  mankind,  of  the  soul  as  a 
distinct  entity. 


SPIRITUALISM    AS    A    SCIENTIFIC   QUESTION.  115 

Stephen,  the  late  Professor  Clifford,  and  others,  to  denounce 
this  belief  as  merely  "  a  grosser  sort  of  materialism,"  3'ou 
are  simply  giving  a  bad  name  to  what  the  great  seers  of 
all  the  ages  have  intuitively  accepted.  There  is  nothing 
in  this  belief  which  the  most  advanced  science  can  stamp 
as  unscientific.  It  violates  no  principle  of  chemistrj',  me- 
chanics, or  physics  generall}^  The  hypothesis  of  a  super- 
sensual  organism,  developed  pari-passu  with  the  physical, 
and  acting  between  it  and  the  life  inflowing  from  the  Divine 
Source  of  all  things,  is  not  only  a  purely  rational  concep- 
tion, but  one  corroborated  by  innumerable  facts. 

The  pneumatolog3^  of  Spiritualism,  like  that  of  the 
Bible,  the  North  American  Indians,  and  other  ''degraded 
races,"  teaches  us  that  apparitions  of  deceased  persons 
ma}'  be  (1)  either  those  visible  only  to  the  spiritual  senses 
of  the  medium  or  seer ;  or  (2)  those  that  are  visible  to 
the  normal  senses  of  a  promiscuous  assemblage,  like  that 
which  saw  Christ  enter  the  room  with  closed  doors.  In 
both  cases,  the  question  whether  the  apparition  is  com- 
posed of  what  our  human  senses  recognize  as  matter,  is 
left  open.  The  fact  that  an  apparition  may  be  not  only 
visible  but  tangible  would  seem  to  justify  the  belief  that 
the  spirit  has  power  to  use  some  grade  of  evanescent  ma- 
teriality in  presenting  a  simulacrum  of  its  earth-body.  It 
is  not  at  all  hkely  that  the  "degraded  races"  trouble 
themselves  with  the  distinction  between  material  substance 
and  spiritual  substance.  But  what  they  can  see  and  touch 
they  beheve  in  as  something  having  form  and  substance  of 
some  kind,  and  as  occupying  space.  And  in  this  they  are 
plainly  right  —  however  it  may  affect  you  as  "materialism." 

In  regard  to  the  constituent  nature  of  the  so-called  spir- 
itual body  we  do  not  presume  to  dogmatize.  Whether 
mind  is  an  organism  or  the  result  of  an  organism,  is  not 
the  question.  All  that  Spiritualism  teaches  on  the  subject 
is  that  the  spirit  or  soul  is  not  an  abstract,  thinking  prin- 


116  REPLY   TO    WUNDT. 

ciple,  bat  the  accompaniment  .or  expression  of  a- distinct 
substance  and  form,  dwelling  in  the  ph3'sical  bod}-,  and 
independent  of  it  when  that  bod}^  dies. 

The  act  of  clairvoj^ance  involves  the  existence  of  a  spir- 
itual faculty  inhering  in  something  distinct  from  gross,  vis- 
ible matter.  If  man  is  ever  to  exist  after  the  dissolution 
of  the  terrestrial  bod}^  then  must  he  be  already,  in  his  ter- 
restrial life,  a  spirit  though  circumscribed  by  organs  adapt- 
ing him  to  it ;  and  he  should  be  able  to  manifest,  under 
certain  conditions,  foregleams  of  his  spiritual  and  immortal 
nature.     That  he  does  this  we  have  the  proofs. 

Whether  matter  and  spirit  are  distinct  in  their  ultimate 
essence  is  a  question  the  solution  of  which  does  not  affect 
the  facts  on  which  the  Spiritual  theory  is  grounded.  But 
when  3^ou  charge  it  upon  Spiritualism  that  it  "  transforms 
the  Spiritual  into  matter,"  j'ou  again  misrepresent  the  fact. 
On  the  contrar}',  it  makes  mind,  Spirit,  the  Master  of  matter, 
exercising  a  power  over  it  so  inconceivable  to  our  finite 
faculties,  that  Zollner  has  to  resort  to  Kant's  hard  hypoth- 
esis of  a  fifth  dimension  in  space  in  order  to  bring  the 
seeming  miracle  within  the  sphere  of  an  obscure  scientific 
solution. 

That  which  underlies  both  matter  and  spirit,  and  is  their 
substance,  "fulgurates"  forth,  or  flows  forth,  as  Leibnitz 
and  Swedenborg  both  teach,  from  the  Divine  Substance ; 
but  wd*  do  not  confound  the  Spiritual  principle  which  con- 
trols matter  with  matter  itself;  nor  do  we  confound  the 
Spirit-bod}'  with  the  Spirit  itself. 

You  must  be  aware  that  the  two  greatest  philosophers 
that  Germany  has  produced,  Leibnitz  and  Kant,  were  to  a 
great  extent  sharers  in  the  belief  which  you  account  as 
"most  melancholy."  Leibnitz  insisted  that  in  regard  to 
every  finite  intelhgence,  the  soul  is  necessarily  always 
clothed  with  a  material  body,  more  or  less  attenuated,  — 
(pure  animism  of  the  ' '  degraded  races  !  "  )  ;  —  and  that  it 


SPIRITUALISM    AS    A    SCIENTIFIC    QUESTION.  117 

finds  in  its  spiritual  bocl}^  of  the  Pauline  type  fresli  organs 
of  consciousness.  Kant  predicted  that  there  will  come  a 
day  when  it  wdll  be  demonstrated  that  there  is  "  a  com- 
munion actual  and  indissoluble"  between  the  world  of 
spirits  and  the  human  soul  throughout  its  terrestrial  ex- 
istence. (The  animism  of  the  lower  races  again  !)  It  is 
true  that  Kant  speaks  of  spirits  in  this  connection  as 
'*  immaterial  natures  ;  "  but  that  does  not  conflict  with  the 
apphcation  of  the  notion  that  they  ma}^  require  substan- 
tial organisms  through  which  to  express  such  natures, 
and  realize  the  wealtli  of  God's  universe,  visible  and  in- 
visible. I.  II.  Ficlite,  shortly  before  he  died,  in  1879, 
wrote  of  our  phenomena:  "Belief  in  the  immortality  of 
the  soul  is  ratified  b}^  these  evidences  of  psychical  expe- 
rience." 

Augustine  (a.  d.  430)  and  Thomas  Aquinas  (a.  d.  1274) 
both  wrote  in  favor  of  the  soul's  immaterialit}' ;  but  the 
former  postulated  a  subtile  corporeal  substance,  the  germ 
or  equivalent  of  a  bod}^  like  that,  for  belief  in  which  3^ou 
charge  the  "  degraded  races"  with  "  animism."  Aquinas, 
deriving  liis  doctrine  from  the  Neo-Platonists,  teaches  that 
there  are  immaterial  forms  {formo2  separatee)^  and  that 
these  are  individualized  by  themseh  es,  since  they  have  no 
need,  for  their  existence,  of  a  form-receiving  substratum. 
The  fallac}'  of  this  view  is  clearly  exposed  by  Duns  Scotus, 
and  some  of  the  earlier  opponents  of  Thomas. 

It  was  not  till  his  theory  was  taught  by  Descartes  (1G40) 
that  it  had  much  influence  on  the  popular  belief.  Then  the 
Pauline  doctrine  of  a  spiritual  body  being  superseded 
largel}'  in  the  minds  of  scholars,  the  common  belief  became 
"  small  b}^  degrees"  till  it  subsided  into  a  vacuum  of  skep- 
ticism, justifying  this  remark  by  Mr.  W.  R.  Greg  in  re- 
gard to  the  doctrine  of  immortality:  "Let  it  rest  in  the 
vague,  if  3-ou  vrould  have  it  rest  unshaken." 

Is  it  because  we  Spiritualists  do  not  allow  it  to  "  rest  m 


118  REPLY   TO    WUNDT. 

the  vague"  but  re-assert  the  rational  Pauline  doctrine,  and 
bring  it  forward  as  an  inference  of  science,  that  you  call  its 
adoption  b}^  such  philosophers  as  I.  H.  Fichte,  Franz 
Hoffman,  and  others,  a  "relapse"? 

Tjdor,  in  his  "Primitive  Culture,"  tells  us  that  the 
"  animism  of  the  degraded  races,"  into  which  3-ou  fear  we 
are  "relapsing,"  was  the  conception  of  an  "apparition- 
soul  or  ghost-soul,  its  substance  impalpable  and  invisible." 
Are  we,  then,  quite  sure,  that  even  in  their  notions  of  the 
soul's  organism  in  a  future  life,  the}^  were  so  "grossh^  ma- 
terialistic "  as  3'ou  charge  them  with  being? 

Professor  Muller  tells  us  that  even  "the  same  people 
who  believed  in  fetiches  cherished  at  the  same  time  very 
pure,  ver}^  exalted,  \qyj  true  sentiments  of  the  Deit3^" 
He  says:  "We  may  consider  ourselves  safe  against  the 
fetich-worship  of  the  poor  negroes  ;  but  there  are  few  of 
us,  if  any,  who  have  not  their  ovrn  fetiches,  or  their  own 
idols,  whether  in  their  churches  or  in  their  hearts."  He 
assures  us  that  no  tribe  or  nation  has  jei  been  met  with, 
destitute  of  belief  in  higher  beings  than  man. 

What  you  call  "  the  unworthy  conceptions  of  the  condi- 
tion of  the  spirit  after  death"  attach  no  more  to  Spirit- 
ualism than  to  anj^  other  form  of  belief  in  a  future  state. 
An  intelligence  claiming  to  be  that  of  a  returned  spirit, 
being  asked  if  life  in  the  spirit-world  was  at  all  analogous 
to  life  in  this,  replied  :  "Somewhat;"  and  added:  "We 
live  more  in  the  ideal."  Now  that  we  should  carrj^  our 
best  ideals  with  us,  and  be  affected  thereb}',  it  is  perfectly 
rational  to  suppose,  if  we  are  to  preserve  our  identit}^  un- 
impaired. Spiritualism  teaches  that  each  one  gravitates 
wdiere  he  belongs  ;  that  we  reap  as  we  sow  ;  that  the  con- 
trolling affections,  tastes,  and  acts  of  this  life  affect  our 
future  condition  ;  or,  in  the  words  of  the  venerable  I.  H. 
Fichte,  "The  future  life  is  a  continuation  of  the  present, 
and  will  be  affected  by  our  experiences  and  our  prevaihng 


SPIRITUALISM    AS    A    SCIENTIFIC    QUESTION.  119 

thoughts  and  affections  here."  This  3'ou  call  "an  un- 
worthy conception."  To  m}^  mind  it  is  the  worthiest  pos- 
sible conception,  for  the  simple  reason  that  it  is  the  most 
consistent,  rational,  and  just,  as  well  as  a  conception  the 
most  analogous  with  our  present  mental  or  psychical  con- 
stitution. 

The  North  American  Indian's  idea  of  an  Elysium  is  that 
of  a  grand  hunting-ground.  Possiblj^  it  is  just  as  rational 
as  the  idea,  held  by  certain  Christians,  that  heaven  is  a 
place  where  the  elect  shall  eternally  strike  golden  harps  to 
the  praise  of  the  Triune  Being,  or  lie  on  "  Immanuel's 
bosom."  But  it  is  not  a  mere  conception  or  erroneous 
speculation  that  is  to  largely  affect  our  future  condition  ;  it 
is  the  real  dominant  love  that  we  have  made  a  part  of  our 
innermost  nature,  and  which  is  likely  to  cling  to  us  until, 
according  to  the  analogies  of  this  present  hfe,  we  can,  by 
our  own  force  of  will  and  of  habit,  aided  perhaps  b}^  influ- 
ences from  friendly  spirits  or  from  the  Fountain  of  all 
grace  and  truth,  cast  it  off  for  something  higher  and  better. 
For  Spiritualism  does  not  hold  that  the  mistakes  and  evils 
of  this  life  are  to  be  eternally  irreparable,  or  that  God  is 
the  keeper  of  an  everlasting  insane  asylum. 

You  think  it  "  most  pernicious"  that  the  "  Spiritualistic 
s^'stem"  should  make  men,  "of,  at  the  very  least,  most 
ordinar}^  intellectual  and  spiritual  endowments,  the  bearers 
of  supernahiTCil  powers,  thereby  sealing  them  as  the  chosen 
Instruments  of  Providence." 

Ah,  my  dear  sir,  it  would  seem  that  Providence  does  not 
always  work  according  to  our  poor  finite  notions  of  what  is 
most  fit.  We  have  somewhat  higher  authority  than  3'ours 
or  mine  for  believing  that  "  the  foolishness  of  God  is  wiser 
than  men ;  and  the  weakness  of  God  is  stronger  than 
men;"  that  "God  hath  chosen  the  foohsh  things' of  the 
world  to  confound  the  wise ;  and  God  hath  chosen  the 
weak  things  of  the  world  to  confound  the  things  Vv^hich  are 


120  .      REPLY   TO    WUNDT. 

miglit}^;  and  base  things  of  the  world,  and  thhigs  which 
are  des^^ised,  hath  God  chosen,  ?/ea,  and  things  which  are 
not,  to  bring  to  naught  things  that  are ;  that  no  flesL 
should  glor}^  in  his  presence." 

You  speak  of  "spiritual  endowments,"  and  it  is  evident 
that  you  mean  by  the  phrase  what  we  understand  bj^  spirit- 
Kcd-mindedness.  If  you  had  acquainted  3'ourself  with  the 
phenomena  before  trjing  to  discredit  them,  3'ou  would  have 
learned  that  medial  sensitiveness  to  effects  from  supposed 
spirits  does  not  depend  on  the  moral  or  intellectual  superi- 
oritj'  of  the  medium  over  other  men  ;  that  some  of  the 
most  powerful  mediums  are  the  least  entitled  to  the  credit 
of  being  ' '  spiritualh'-minded  ;  "  that  they  are  often  per- 
sons as  readil}^  swayed  by  bad  influences,  by  coarse  sen- 
sual appetites,  as  by  good  and  pure,  and  that  the  instances 
are  rare  in  which  a  medium  for  certain  objective  phenomena 
is  at  the  same  time  a  philosopher  and  a  saint. 

All  this  maj'  seem  quite  wrong  to  jou  and  to  me.  It 
would  perhaps  be  much  more  convincing  if  a  philosopher 
and  man  of  character  like  3'ourself  should  be  selected  as 
the  instrument  of  these  phenomena,  rather  than  a  man 
like  Henrj'  Slade,  who  knows  little  or  nothing  of  "  Causa- 
tion," or  "the  Conservation  of  Energ}'."  That  such  a 
person  should  be  mediall}^  endowed,  and  3'Ou,  the  author 
of  "  Axioms  of  Physics,"  should  not  be  qualified,  b}^  the 
development  of  some  occult  faculty  in  3'our  nature,  to  read 
what  is  written  on  a  tightly-folded  pellet,  or  to  get  direct 
writing  on  a  locked  slate,  is  indeed  hard  to  explain.  It 
looks  as  if  Providence  were  unacquainted  with  jour  rep- 
utation in  Leipzig.  How  we  can  reconcile  this  with  the 
attribute  of  omniscience  I  do  not  see  any  better  than  _you. 

What  3'ou  call  the  ' '  materialization  of  ghosts "  is  an 
offence  to  3'Ou.  The  phenomenon  would  seem  to  be  quite 
analogous  with  that  related  of  Christ,  where,  after  his  cru- 
cifixion, he  entered  the  room  with  closed  doors,  and  showed 


SPIRITUALISM   AS   A    SCIENTIFIC   QUESTION.  121 

the  wounds  in  his  side  to  the  doubting  disciple,  just  as 
"materializing  spirits"  now  exhibit  the  personal  deformi- 
ties which  marked  their  earthly  bodies,  —  and  all  for  the 
single  purpose  of  identification.  That  a  spirit  should  have 
such  a  power  over  matter  as  to  be  able  to  extemporize  a 
visible  and  palpable  simulacrum  of  any  part  of  its  earthly 
form,  woald  seem  to  exalt  rather  than  belittle  our  concep- 
tion of  the  power  of  spirits.  Will  j^ou  explain  why  the 
Spiritualism  that  attributes  such  a  conditioned  power  to  a 
finite  spirit,  is  any  more  "grossly  materialistic"  than  the 
theology  which  ascribes  to  the  Infinite  Spirit  an  uncondi- 
tioned power  over  all  material  things  ? 

The  very  fact  that  the  medium  cannot  command  at  pleas- 
ure, and  for  the  purpose  of  gain,  the  influences  through 
which  the  phenomena  take  place,  is  a  full  explanation  of 
the  conscious  frauds  to  which  he  may  sometimes  resort. 
The  medium  does  not  command  the  spirit ;  it  is  the  sup- 
posed spirit,  who  voluntarily  comes  to  produce  certain 
efi'ects  which  may  satisfy  the  observer  that  an  intelligent 
force,  not  always  animating  a  visible  body,  is  at  work. 

The  paramount  question,  according  to  your  estimate,  is 
not  whether  the  phenomena  are  real,  undeniable  facts, 
"  divine  disclosures,"  —  but  whether  they  are  supposed  by 
philosophers  like  j'ourself  to  be  "  prejudicial"  to  our  social 
welfare.  Truly  this  would  seem  to  be  an  attitude  of  mind 
hardly  favorable  to  the  discussion  of  the  scientific  claims  of 
Spiritualism.  Ought  any  persistent  fact  of  the  cosmos  to 
be  ignored  because,  in  our  human  weakness,  we  ma}'  regard 
it  as  "  prejudicial"  to  some  interest  of  our  own?  Shall  we 
place  our  own  judgment  in  the  matter  above  that  of  the 
Author  of  Nature?  "  Shall  mortal  man  be  more  just  than 
God  ?  Shall  a  man  be  more  pure  than  his  Maker  ? "  One 
would  think  that  the  very  possibility  of  injury  from  a  fact 
of  nature  ought  to  incite  a  generous  lover  of  his  race  to  a 
most  thorough  investigation.     Is  it  not  the  glory  of  real 


122  REPLY   TO   WUNDT. 

science  that  it  is  impartial  and  neutral ;  that  it  asks  not 
whether  a  phenomenon  is  "prejudicial"  or  beneficial,  but 
•works  for  the  truth,  though  the  heavens  fall  ? 

You  say,  "We  can  leave  the  question  entirely  alone'* 
whether  there  is  "  a  ground  for  belief"  in  our  phenomena. 
These  words  clearl}^  embody  your  thought ;  and  that  thought 
is  not  scientific  but  Jesuitical. 

Perhaps  j^ou  will  reply,  that  admitting  our  phenomena  to 
be  true,  we  are  not  justified  in  drawing  from  them  the 
inference  we  do.  But  what  we  ask  is,  not  that  you  shall 
admit  our  inferences,  but  our  facts.  The  inferences  can 
take  care  of  themselves.  But  here,  too,  you  would  block 
the  progress  of  science.  The  axioms  on  which  all  science 
rests  are  inferences.  In  the  words  of  the  late  Thomas  M. 
Herbert,  "All  science  and  human  life  would  be  impossible 
unless  we  accepted  the  deliverance  of  consciousness  luhen  it 

carries  us   beyond  phenomena Science   transcends 

phenomena  at  every  step ;  the  whole  fabric  of  human 
knowledge  would  collapse,  unless  the  testimony  of  con- 
sciousness was  accepted  to  facts  not  found  amongst  phe- 
nomena, but  inferred  from  them." 

We  are  forced  every  day  to  accept  inferences  relating  to 
what  transcends  phenomena,  if  we  are  to  recognize  the  past 
history  of  the  world,  or  anything  externally  presented  to 
us.  Phenomena,  then,  and  conceptions  derived  from  them 
—  i.  e.,  inferences,  —  are  all  that  we  can  know  directly, 
and  both  are  but  "  symbols  of  inaccessible  realities." 

In  regard  to  the  direct  writing  of  supposed  spirits,  you 
remark:  "Intellectually  the  soul  falls  into  a  condition 
v.hich,  so  far  as  we  can  conclude  from  the  character  of  the 
writing  upon  slates,  can  only  be  described  as  lamentable. 
These  writings  belong  throughout  to  the  domain  of  higher 
or  lower  stupidity,  chiefly  lower  —  i.  e.,  they  are  absolutely 
without  sense." 

The  mischiefs  from  Spiritualism,  like  those  from  witch- 


SPIRITUALISM    AS   A   SCIENTIFIC    QUESTION.  123 

craft,  arise,  as  I  have  already  asserted,  from  a  misinter- 
pretation of  the  facts.  The  novice,  naturally  excited  by 
the  transcendent  character  of  the  phenomena,  forms  an  ex- 
aggerated estimate  of  the  wisdom  and  reliability  of  those 
who  have  passed  from  this  into  the  next  stage  of  being. 
Shakspeare,  who  was  well  acquainted  with  the  traditional 
demonology  of  his  da}^,  makes  Hamlet  at  first  mistrust  the 
spirit  he  has  seen,  as  one  who  is  abusing  him  to  damn  him. 
The  doubt  was  apt  and  proper.  When  we  have  learned  to 
regard  spirits  not  as  ghastly  monstrosities  outside  of  nature, 
but  as  our  human  fellow-beings,  changed  only  through  their 
relations  to  a  new  and  untried  sphere  of  life,  we  may  possi- 
bly shake  off  these  injurious  misconceptions. 

One  of  the  great  lessons  that  Spiritualism  has  to  teach, 
is  that  death  makes  no  instant  change  in  the  moral  or  in- 
tellectual condition  of  man.  The  bearings  of  this  knowledge 
on  human  morality  are  obvious.  The  fool  will  not  at  once 
become  a  sage,  nor  the  clown  a  gentleman,  nor  the  thief  an 
honest  man.  Each  will  talk,  and  feel,  and  act  very  much 
as  he  did  on  earth. 

But  your  remark  as  to  the  direct  writings  on  slates  is  an 
error.  I  have  had  a  good  deal  of  experience  in  them,  and 
on  no  one  occasion  have  I  received  a  message  that  could  be 
called  stupid.  They  have  been  apt  and  well- written  replies 
to  general  questions,  and  though  often  unsatisfactory  in 
withholding  clear  proofs  of  identit}',  they  have  frequentl}'' 
indicated  an  intelligence  far  beyond  that  of  the  medium. 
Writings  in  languages  unknown  to  him  are  often  got.  I 
have  related  elsewhere  the  experience  of  Mr.  Timayenis, 
the  Greek,  and  of  Mr.  Giles  B.  Stebbins.  Such  instances 
are  not  unfrequent.  There  are  numerous  facts  that  contra- 
dict the  theory  that  the  direct  writing  comes  ahvays  from 
the  mind  of  the  medium.  That  it  may  sometimes  be  colored 
by  medial  impressions,  is  probable.  To  assert  in  a  general 
way  that  these  pneumatographic  communications  are  ' '  abso- 


124  REPLY   TO    WUNDT. 

lutely  without  sense  "  is  a  declaration  without  sense,  because 
without  truth.  Supposing  your  assertion  to  be  true,  how 
would  3'ou  explain  the  fact,  without  classing  the  mediums 
themselves  (to  whom,  I  suppose,  you  would  credit  the 
tricks)  as  belonging  to  ' '  the  domain  of  higher  or  lower 
stupidity"?  This  would  be  notoriously  contrary  to  the 
truth. 

When  communications  come  indirectly  through  mediums, 
and  signed  with  the  name  of  some  eminent  person,  it  is  true 
that  they  often  belie  the  assumption  by  the  style.  The 
theory  that  there  are  impostors  in  the  spirit-world  as  well 
as  in  this,  is  consistent  with  all  the  facts  of  pneumatology 
throughout  the  ages. 

But  the  intellectual  state  of  the  medium  may  sometimes 
be  in  fault.  Centuries  ago  Plutarch,  who  was  well  acquaint- 
ed with  supersensual  phenomena,  remarked  that  "the 
greatest  number  of  Apollo's  oracles  were,  in  respect  both 
to  metre  and  expression,  tasteless  and  full  of  errors."  The 
same  remark  applies  to  nearly  all  the  modern  medial  poetry. 
But  Plutarch  did  not  question  the  spiritual  derivation  of 
certain  oracles  because  of  their  faulty  style.  One  of  the 
characters  of  the  dialogue,  in  which  he  discusses  the  sub- 
ject, is  made  to  say:  "Voice  and  sound,  expression  and 
metre,  do  not  belong  to  Apollo,  but  to  the  prophetess  ;  he 
only  inspires  her  with  the  images  and  conceptions,  and  in- 
flames her  soul  so  that  it  can  see  the  future." 

Some  few  of  the  psychographic  communications  have  been 
worthy  of  the  literary  powers  of  a  Fenelon,  a  Channing,  or 
even  a  Wundt.  The  instances  may  be  rare  ;  but  not  more 
so  than  instances  of  eminent  genius  are  rare  among  human 
beings  in  this  life. 

Let  me  come  to  the  last  of  your  objections.  You  tell  us 
that  Spiritualism  is  a  superstition  ;  and  you  add  : 

"Superstition  defies  every  opposition  and  attack.  Driven 
from  one  position,  it  is  at  once  ready  in  another.     It  were 


SPIRITUALISM    AS   A   SCIENTIFIC   QUESTION.  125 

almost  chimerical  to  hope  that  science  will  ever  completely 
root  it  out.  Nothing  could  darken  such  a  hope  more  than 
the  appearance  of  superstition  in  scientific  circles  them- 
selves. Science,  striking  off  one  head  from  the  monstrous 
hydra,  is  obliged  to  see  a  new  one  start  out  in  another 
place,  a  head  which  even  assumes  her  own  face." 

Now,  sir,  when  you  give  us  to  understand  that  a  fact  of 
nature  ought  not  to  be  investigated  because  it  ma}^  prove 
"prejudicial"  to  human  welfare,  does  the  superstition  lie 
on  your  side,  or  on  that  of  those  who,  reverenth^  believing 
that  all  the  operations  of  nature  have  a  divine  meaning, 
are  willing  to  give  their  best  energies  to  the  investigation 
of  the  truth  ?  You  warn  us  off  from  a  scientific  study  of 
certain  phenomena,  and  in  the  same  breath  you  tell  us  that 
Science  "must  cope  with  Modern  Superstition." 

Cope  with  it,  how  ?  Unscientifically  ?  By  refusing  to  in- 
vestigate the  grounds  of  what  you  call  a  superstition  ?  Such 
is  the  strange  inconsistency  suggested  by  3^our  language ! 
Nay,  you  go  further.  You  insinuate  that  well-known  phe- 
nomena, which  have  not  been  scientifically  discredited  after 
thirty-three  years  of  testing,  though  quite  inexplicable 
to  yourself,  will  probably  turn  out  to  be  mere  juggling 
tricks.  You  bring  against  a  well- tested  medium  charges 
of  mendacity  and  imposture,  founded  wholly  on  an  igno- 
rance of  the  history  and  nature  of  medial  manifestations. 
Upon  the  good  faith  of  the  "  court- artist,"  Bellachini,  you 
cast  an  aspersion  because  he  manfully  confessed  he  could 
detect  no  sleight-of-hand  trick  in  the  phenomena  through 
Slade. 

Before  jou.  can  rule  out  Spiritualism  as  a  non-scientific 
question,  you  must  prove  that  our  two  basic  facts  of  clair- 
voyance and  direct  writing  are  not  established.  This  it  is 
impossible  for  you  to  do.  You  yourself  have  confessed 
your  inability  to  explain  them,  and  your  suggestion  of 
jugglery  is  merely  the  exploded  superstition  of  the  last 


126  REPLY  TO   WUNDT. 

thirty-three  years.  There  is  now  daily  testimony  of  the 
most  unimpeachable  kind  to  the  occurrence  of  these  phe- 
nomena under  various  conditions,  and  in  various  forms. 
While  I  write  this  paragraph,  I  take  up  a  paper  that  came 
to  me  by  mail  an  hour  ago,  and  find  in  it  a  communication 
from  Mr.  S.  B.  Nichols,  of  467  Waverly  Avenue,  Brook- 
1}^,  N.  Y.,  a  careful  observer  and  a  gentleman  long  known 
to  me  by  reputation,  in  which  he  tells  us  of  his  visit,  July 
14,  1880,  to  Mr.  A.  Phillips,  at  133  East  36th  Street, 
New  York  city.  "I  found,"  he  sa3's,  "a  3'oung  man  of 
some  twenty -five  summers,  prepossessing  in  appearance, 
who  said  that  he  could  guarantee  nothing.  Sometimes 
there  were  failures  under  the  best  conditions.  I  did  not 
make  myself  known,  and  he  had  no  means  of  knowing 
whether  I  was  a  believer  or  a  skeptic." 

Mr.  Nichols  got  the  direct  writing  several  times  on  clean 
slates,  and,  as  Guldenstubbe  did  on  paper,  without  the  use 
of  a  pencil.  He  says:  "The  medium  did  not  touch  the 
slates  after  they  had  been  placed  in  position.  When  the 
raps  were  heard,  I  opened  the  slates  and  found  written  upon 
one  of  them  in  a  legible  hand :  *  No  doubt  you  think  this 
easily  accomplished.    You  just  try  it,  and  3'ou  will  find  out.' " 

Mr.  Nichols  bought  two  large  slates  of  his  own,  and  of 
the  experiment  with  these  he  says  : 

"  I  placed  my  own  double  slate  on  the  shelf  to  the  table  ; 
also  the  medium's  small  slates  on  the  top  of  mine.  On  my 
own  slate  was  written,  'If  3'ou  were  alone,  we  can  come. 
James.'  On  the  small  slates  was  written,  '  If  you  will  sit 
alone  for  a  little  while  each  evening,  we  will  make  ourselves 
manifest.     I  am  Martha.' 

"I  next  put  a  clean,  whole  sheet  of  commercial  note- 
paper  between  my  own  slates,  and  put  it  on  the  shelf  to 
the  table,  and  my  foot  upon  it.  While  the  writing  was 
being  done  I  could  feel  the  vibrations  distinctly  on  the 
inside  of  this  sheet  of  paper,  without  pencil  crumb,  or  any- 
thing that  could  scratch  or  make  a  mark.  On  the  paper  or 
slates  was  written : 


SPIRITUALISM    AS   A   SCIENTIFIC   QUESTION.  127 

*'  'Would  that  I  had  the  power  to  give  you  further  evi- 
dences.    James  jSTichols.' 

"  During  these  various  experiments,  the  medium  was 
walking  about  the  room,  and  did  not  touch  my  slates  unless 
in  ray  presence,  and  then  onl}"  casuall}'.  Three  of  the 
names  were  of  persons  who  once  lived  here  in  this  mortal 
life,  and  have  passed  to  the  other  world.  If  this  writing 
was  not  produced  by  a  conscious  individuality^  disembodied, 
whence  the  power?     And  whence  the  individuality?" 

Scarcely  had  I  read  the  above  account,  than,  turning  to 
another  column  of  the  paper,  I  read  the  following  state- 
ment by  a  writer  (not  a  Spiritualist) ,  taken  from  the  Deii- 
ver  (Colorado)  Daily  News  of  July,  1880.  The  genuine- 
ness of  the  phenomena  through  Mrs.  A.  R.  Simpson,  to 
whom  he  refers,  had  been  previously  tested  repeatedly  by 
personal  friends  of  mj  own  in  Chicago  : 

"Mrs.  Simpson  handed  two  slates  to  the  reporter,  also 
a  needle  and  some  thread,  then  leaving  the  room,  requested 
him  to  sew  the  two  slates  together  through  the  binding  on 
the  border.  This  was  done  effectuall}",  the  two  slates  being 
securely  sewed  together,  and  the  outsides  marked  to  show 
that  they  could  not  possiblj''  be  separated  without  the  fact 
being  known.  After  a  few  seconds,  during  which  the 
writer  never  let  go  of  the  slates,  he  was  requested  to  cut 
them  apart.  When  this  was  done,  writing  was  found  upon 
the  inside  slate,  in  answer  to  a  question  that  had  been  put 
in  the  usual  wa}^,  by  writing,  and  folding  it  up  in  a  paper." 

In  this  double  experiment  there  was  manifested  not  only 
direct  writing,  but  the  power  of  reading  what  was  written 
on  a  paper,  folded  so  that  by  no  means  known  to  physical 
science  could  it  be  read.  Here  was  a  double  guarant}^  of 
genuineness.  Nothing  could  have  been  written  beforehand 
by  some  occult  chemical  means  on  the  slate  ;  for  the  writ- 
ing was  in  answer  to  a  question  written  on  the  spot  ^^J  the 
sitter,  and  the  paper  was  folded  so  that  no  writing  on  it 
could  be  read  by  human  eyesight.  The  clairvoyance  was 
proved  by  the  answer  on  the  slate,  and  the  direct  writing 


128  REPLY  TO   WUNDT. 

was  proved  not  only  by  the  conditions,  but  by  its  being  in 
reply  to  what  was  contained  in  a  paper  not  yet  unfolded. 

The  San  Francisco  Sunday  Chronicle  of  September,  1879, 
saj's  that  Mrs.  E.  W.  Lennett,  at  817  Bush  Street,  in  that 
city,  is  a  remarkable  medium  for  independent  slate- writing. 
It  tells  us  that  a  skeptic  recently  took  to  her  a  covered, 
double  slate,  joined  by  hinges,  put  on  one  of  the  inside 
surfaces,  with  his  own  hand,  a  bit  of  slate-pencil,  folded 
the  slates  together,  and  held  them  with  both  hands.  The 
medium,  without  even  stopping  the  conversation  in  which 
she  was  engaged,  also  took  hold  of  the  slate  with  one 
hand,  and  immediately  the  pencil  could  be  heard  scratchhig 
over  the  surface  of  the  slate  within.  When  the  pencil 
ceased,  and  the  slate  was  opened,  the  entire  side  of  one 
slate  was  filled  with  writing  in  a  plain,  bold  hand,  in  Eng- 
lish, while  the  other  was  partially  filled  with  writing  in 
French,  a  language  the  medium  is  entirely  unacquainted 
with,  but  which  the  gentleman  in  question  thoroughly  un- 
derstood. As  a  still  farther  test,  the  medium  gave  him 
the  slate  to  hold  in  his  own  hands,  ivitJiout  her  being  in 
contact  icith  it  in  any  way,  when  the  result  was  the  same  as 
before,  the  slate  being  filled  with  writing.' 

Will  you  say  that  all  this  host  of  witnesses  are  fooled, 
or  that  they  lie  ?  A  simple  experiment  of  your  own  would 
soon  prove  to  you  that  you  were  in  just  the  same  predica- 
ment—  for  3^our  honesty  would  force  you,  in  spite  of  your 
bitter  prejudices,  to  testify  to  the  truth. 

Spiritualism,  even  if  true,  jou  think  ought  to  be  dis- 
missed from  scientific  consideration  as  immoral  in  its  ten- 
dency. It  is  not  necessar}^  for  me  here  to  discuss  ihe 
question,  whether  Spiritualism,  being  a  cosmical  fact,  is 
moral  or  not  in  its  tendency.  I  should  as  soon  think  of 
questioning  the  morality  of  the  interstellar  ether,  or  of  the 
principle  of  gravitation.  ''Truth  before  all  things," 
should  be  the  motto  of  the  man  of  science.     Yet  your 


SPIRITUALISM   AS   A   SCIENTIFIC   QUESTION.  129 

objection,  impertinent  as  it  is,  is  a  common  one ;  and  we 
often  hear  the  question  put  in  regard  to  Spirituah'sm, 
"What  is  the  use  of  it?" 

The  questions,  "What  is  the  use  of  the  human  race?" 
"What  is  the  use  of  the  universe?"  would  be  quite  as 
much  to  the  purpose.  If  falsehood  and  depravity  are 
manifested  by  spirits,  so  they  are  b}^  the  whole  human 
family.  If  incitements  to  evil  come  from  the  spirit- world, 
so  they  do  from  this.  The  only  question  for  science  to 
settle  is.  Do  these  claimed  phenomena  occur?  And  in 
failing  to  place  this  as  the  scientific  limit  to  your  argument, 
3^ou  show  that  3'ou  are  an  untrustworthy  guide  on  a  subject 
which  3^ou  affect  to  treat  from  the  scientific  point  of  view. 

If  our  phenomena  are  destined  to  change  the  notions  of 
scientific  men  as  to  the  constitution  of  matter,  or  as  to  a 
seeming  infraction  of  laws  which  may  be  subject  to  a  hith- 
erto unrecognized  spiritual  law,  then  you  must  accommo- 
date 3^our  notions  to  the  facts,  and  not  think  to  get  rid  of 
the  latter  by  crying  out  against  them  as  interruptions  of 
the  sequences  of  nature. 

If  these  apparent  interruptions  are  permitted  by  the 
great  Orderer,  let  us  summon  the  faith  that  will  enable  us 
to  see  in  them  a  dispensation  nothing  less  than  divine.  No 
matter  how  low,  how  distasteful,  or  how  apparentlj^  im- 
moral they  may  seem  to  our  finite  and  unprepared  minds, 
let  us  be  sure  they  mean  something  for  our  good  which  it  is 
our  business  to  find  out,  however  difficult  the  problem  may 
seem  at  first.  It  is  the  absence  of  a  wise  faith  in  God  and 
nature,  which  prompts  these  despairing  cries  of  a  violation 
of  natural  law,  or  of  a  loosening  of  moral  restrictions. 
Order  and  law  prevail  in  all  that  may  seem  chaotic  to  3^our 
distorted  view  of  the  spirit-world  ;  and  j^onr  fears  that  all 
is  going  to  the  bad,  if  Spiritualism  is  allowed  to  vindicate 
its  claims  to  scientific  attention,  are  chimerical  and  gratui- 
tous, if  not  blasphemous. 
9 


130  REPLY  TO   WUNDT. 

The  aim  of  the  philosophy  of  Ulrici  is  "to  demonstrate 
on  the  basis  of  facts  that  to  the  soul,  in  contradistinction 
to  nature,  not  simply  independent  existence^  but  also  the 
supremacy  belongs,  both  of  right  and  in  fact."  Can  you 
wonder  then  that  he  welcomed  the  facts  of  Spiritualism, 
and,  seeing  the  gravity  of  the  testimony,  asked  for  it  a 
scientific  investigation  ? 

"  The  testimony,"  says  Chalhs,  Professor  of  Astronomy, 
Cambridge,  England,  "  has  been  so  abundant  and  consen- 
taneous, that  either  the  facts  must  be  admitted  to  be  such 
as  are  reported,  or  the  possibility  of  certifying  facts  by 
human  testimony  must  be  given  up." 

Your  easy  cry  of  jugglery  has  been  doing  service  ever 
since  1847.  Bellachini,  Houdin,  Hamilton,  Hermann,  Ja- 
cobs,* Rhys,  and  other  eminent  professors  of  the  con- 
juring art,  have  declared  that  medial  phenomena  are  not 
exphcable  by  the  theory  of  prestidigitation ;  yet  you  fall 
back  on  it  as  if  it  were  jowv  on\j  way  of  retreat  from  the 
Spiritual  theory.  Why  not  employ  your  great  abilities, 
your  learning,  and  your  meditative  powers  in  bringing  for- 
ward some  other  theory  in  explanation,  which  may  at  least 
have  the  merit  of  novelty  and  of  reason  ?  If  you  will  do 
it,  you  will  do  what  the  sages  of  all  the  centuries  have 
been  unable  to  accomphsh.  Let  this  be  an  incentive  to 
your  ambition. 

*  Jacobs,  a  weU-known  German  professor,  says  (1880),  that,  after  having  thor- 
oughly examined  what  are  termed  Spiritual  phenomena,  he  can  declare  — 
though  he  can  imitate  a  great  many  of  the  more  startling  exhibitions  of  power 
accorded  us  by  the  disembodied—  that  what  he  is  enabled  to  do  as  a  sleight-of 
hand  performer  <*  has  nothing  in  common  with  Spiritualism." 


UNSCIENTIFIC   OBJECTIONS.  131 


CHAPTER    IV. 

CLAIRVOYANCE  A  SPIRITUAL  FACULTY. — TRANCE-SPEAKING.— 
UNSCIENTIFIC  OBJECTIONS  OP  SPECIALISTS  IN  SCIENCE.  — 
MORE   TESTIMONY. 

We  are  told  that  the  Spiritualist  is  the  victim  of  an  illu- 
sion ;  that  he  has  none  of  the  ' '  wariness "  becoming  the 
scientific  mind  ;  that  he  ' '  seeks  for  comfort  at  the  expense 
of  truth  ; "  that  "  sentiment  and  imagination  have  made  that 
true  to  him  which  is  not  true  ;  whereas  the  spirit  of  science 
is  that  attitude  of  mind  which  abhors  delusion  as  the  most 
colossal  of  errors." 

It  is  only  the  self-complacency  of  ignorance  that  could 
invent  such  objections.  Imagine  men  like  Zollner  and  his 
professional  associates,  all  trained  and  accomplished  physi- 
cists, watching  the  movements  of  a  glass  bell  under  the 
table,  and  being  so  deficient  in  "  wariness"  as  to  testify  to 
seeing  what  they  did  not  see,  and  to  hearing  what  they  did 
not  hear,  and  to  touching  what  they  did  not  touch  ! 

"It  is  from  no  dread  of  annihilation,"  says  Alfred  R. 
Wallace,  "  that  I  have  gone  into  this  subject  of  Spiritual- 
ism. I  came  to  the  inquiry  utterly  unbiased  by  hopes  or 
fears,  because  I  knew  that  my  belief  could  not  affect  the 
reality,  and  with  an  ingrained  prejudice  against  even  such 
a  word  as  spirit,  which  I  have  hardly  3'et  overcome." 

Dr.  John  Elliotson,  F.R.S.,  one  of  the  most  scientific  of 
English  physicians,  and  for  several  years  editor  of  The 
Zoist  in  London,  had  advocated  extreme  Sadducean  and 
materiaUstic  views  almost  to  the  end  of  his  life,  although  he 


132  EVER-INCREASING  TESTIMONY. 

was  well  acquainted  with  some  of  the  lower  phenomena  of 
mesmerism.  One  little  proof  of  supersensual  power  which 
he  got  through  D.  D.  Home,  in  France,  wholly  revolution- 
ized his  opinions,  and  he  became  an  earnest  Spiritualist. 

In  the  year  1868,  in  company  with  my  friend,  Wm.  White, 
of  London,  author  of  a  candid  Life  of  Swedenborg,  I  called 
on  Elliotson's  friend  and  colleague.  Dr.  Ashburner,  at  the 
house  of  the  latter  in  London,  opposite  Hyde  Park  Gate. 
He  had  been  one  of  the  Queen's  physicians.  He  described 
to  me  in  touching  terms  the  softening  effects  upon  Elliot- 
son's  character  of  his  new  convictions.  Ashburner  is  the 
author  of  some  remarkable  works,  giving  his  experiences  in 
Spiritualism.  I  found  him,  though  blind,  serenely  happy 
in  his  old  age  in  the  possession  of  a  great,  inspiring  truth, 
of  which  he  had  satisfied  himself  fully. 

J.  F.  Deleuze,  the  experienced  student  of  mesmerism 
and  somnambulism,  saj^s  that  the  power  of  seeing  at  a  dis- 
tance, prevision,  the  communication  of  thought  without  the 
aid  of  external  signs,  are  sufficient  proofs  of  the  spirituality 
of  the  soul.  He  marvels  at  the  materialism  of  Dr.  Georget, 
who  had  acquainted  himself  with  some  of  the  phenomena. 
Georget  was  the  author  of  the  much-esteemed  "  Phj'siology 
of  the  Nervous  System  "  (1821) ,  in  which  extreme  material- 
istic views  were  maintained.  But  the  transcendent  facts  of 
somnambulism  came  fast  and  thick,  and  fairly  wrested  from 
him  his  materialism.  In  his  last  will  and  testament  he 
solemnly  says,  referring  to  the  above-named  volume  from 
his  pen : 

"  This  work  had  scarcely  appeared,  when  renewed  medi- 
tations on  a  very  extraordinary  phenomenon,  somnam- 
bulism, no  longer  permitted  me  to  entertain  doubts  of  the 
existence  within  us,  and  external  to  us,  of  an  Intelligent 
principle,  altogether  different  from  material  existences :  in 
a  word,  of  the  soul  and  God.  With  respect  to  this  I  have 
a  profound  conviction,  founded  upon  facts  which  I  believe 
to  be  incontestable.    This  declaration  will  not  see  the  light 


UNSCIENTIFIC    OBJECTIONS.  133 

till  a  period  when  its  sincerity  will  not  be  doubted,  nor  my 
intentions  suspected.  As  I  cannot  publish  it  myself,  1 
request  those  persons  who  may  read  it,  on  opening  this  will, 
that  is  to  say,  after  my  death,  to  give  it  all  possible 
publicity." 

Georget  will  probably  be  set  aside  by  our  opponents  as  a 
man  who  got  his  convictions  "  by  suppressing  the  skeptical 
intellect,  not  by  satisfying  it."  Having  first  manifested  his 
sincei'ity  in  his  skeptical  utterances,  he  t\411  be  charged  with 
insincerity  or  incompetence  in  frankly  admitting  that  new 
facts  had  convinced  him  of  his  error. 

And  what  is  this  clairvoyance  to  which  Georget  refers  ? 
In  its  connection  with  mesmeric  somnambulism,  it  was  first 
announced  by  Pu^^segur  in  1784.  As  far  as  I  have  ad- 
mitted it  as  part  of  a  scientific  basis,  it  is  the  exercise  of 
the  supersensual  faculty  of  penetrating  opaque  and  dense 
matter  as  if  by  the  faculty  of  sight.  But  it  does  more.  It 
detects  our  unuttered,  undeveloped  thoughts  ;  it  goes  back 
along  the  past,  and  describes  what  is  hidden ;  naj^,  the 
j)roofs  are  overwhelming  that  it  may  pierce  the  future,  and 
predict  coming  events  from  the  shadows  they  cast  before. 

What  is  it  that  sees  without  the  physical  eyes,  and  without 
the  assistance  of  light?  What  is  normal  sight?  It  is  not 
the  vibrating  ether  —  it  is  not  the  external  eye  —  that  sees. 
It  is  the  soul  using  the  eye  as  an  instrument,  and  the  light 
as  a  condition.  Prove  once  that  sight  can  exist  without 
the  use  of  light,  sensation,  or  any  physical  organ  of  vision, 
and  you  prove  an  abnormal,  supersensual,  spiritual  faculty  ; 
—  a  proof  which  puts  an  end  to  the  theory  of  materialism, 
and  which,  through  its  aflSnity  with  analogous  or  corres- 
ponding facts,  justifies  its  introduction  as  part  of  a  scientific 
basis  for  the  spiritual  theory. 

"Thus  it  is,"  says  Mr.  R.  H.  Brown,  (1868,)  "that 
clairvoyance  furnishes  the  most  conclusive  answer  to  the 
materialists,  and  presents  the  most  satisfactory  proof  of 


134  EVER-INCREASING   TESTIMONY. 

the  existence  of  the  soul,  separate  from  the  body  ;  —  resid- 
ing within  it,  generally  employing  its  organs  for  the  recep- 
tion of  ideas,  but  at  times  acting  independently  of  those 
organs,  and  obtaining  information  without  their  aid.  By 
clairvoyance  we  thus  show  the  truth  of  the  first  proposition 
upon  which  Spiritualism  rests,  —  the  existence  of  a  dual 
nature  in  man,  a  soul  as  well  as  a  body." 

The  same  waiter  proceeds  to  argue,  that  if  the  mind  sees 
without  the  aid  of  light  or  of  the  optic  nerve,  it  must  have 
some  other  medium  by  which  the  simple  impression  of  sight 
can  be  individualized,  and  presented  distinct  and  separate 
from  all  other  impressions  ;  there  must  be  a  spiritual  organ 
of  sight  besides  a  physical.  And  if  there  is  a  spiritual 
organ  of  sight,  there  must  also  be  a  spiritual  organ  for  the 
individualization  of  all  the  other  impressions.  In  nature, 
each  part  is  adapted  to  all  the  other  parts,  and  the  exist- 
ence of  one  part  presupposes  the  existence  of  all  the  other 
parts.  If  there  is  a  spiritual  organ  of  sight,  there  must  also 
be  a  complete  spiritual  organization  or  body,  interfused 
with  and  permeating  the  physical  body.  And  this  is  w^hat 
Spiritualism  asserts. 

••'Nature,  our  wise  and  powerful  mother,  fore-adapts 
everything  for  the  conditions  amid  which  she  intends  it 
shall  live.  How  shall  we  escape  the  conclusion,  that  by 
adapting  the  soul  to  another  state  of  being,  and  endowing 
it  for  that  purpose  with  the  power  to  exist,  act,  think,  see, 
and  hear,  without  the  aid  of  the  body,  and  separated  from 
it,  Nature  has  given  us  her  solemn  and  sacred  guaranty 
that  we  shall  live  hereafter  ?  " 

There  are  some,  even  among  those  called  scientific,  who 
are  so  blinded  by  theories  as  to  be  impervious  to  facts. 
Even  among  Spiritualists  there  are  those  who  would  under- 
value the  importance  of  our  objective  phenomena.  But  all 
the  great  advances  in  human  invention  and  discovery  have 
been  made  through  attention  to  facts  ;  —  and  some  of  them 


UNSCIENTIFIC   OBJECTIONS.  135 

facts  as  humble  as  the  falling  of  an  apple,  or  the  swinging 
of  a  lamp.  To  undervalue  the  slightest  manifestation  froir 
a  spiritual  source  is  a  foUj^,  no  matter  whether  it  be  a  simpU 
rap,  or  a  message  written  by  some  force  unknown.  Even 
if  it  only  discloses  to  us  the  frivolity  of  the  manifesting 
agent,  it  is  knowledge  gained.  I  confess  that  a  simple, 
flawless  experiment  in  direct  writing  is  to  me  more  impressive 
than  all  the  speculative  discourses  by  so-called  trance- 
speakers,  in  which  no  objective,  scientific  proof  is  given  of 
preterhuman  power. 

In  this  I  do  not  disparage  the  trance-sjpeaker.  There  is 
place  for  him,  too ;  and  when  the  influence  impelling  him 
is  that  of  wisdom  and  reason,  I  can  listen  to  him  with  profit. 
But  it  is  often  impossible  to  distinguish  between  what 
comes  from  the  occult  powers,  the  unconscious  reminis- 
cences, of  the  trance-speaker  himself,  and  that  which  may 
come  from  some  prompting  spirit.  The  flowery  fluency  of 
a  trance-speaker  must  not  be  taken  as  a  proof  of  power ; 
rather  is  it  an  evidence  of  weakness.  Even  granting  that 
such  mediums  speak  from  some  foreign  spirit's  inspiration, 
that  spirit  may  be  inferior  to  many  a  mortal  in  sound  judg- 
ment and  intelligence.  The  spirits  that  assume  great 
names,  and  influence  the  medium  to  talk  in  a  style  that 
revolts  our  sense  of  truth,  of  good  taste,  and  of  identity, 
must  be  brought  to  the  bar  of  our  highest  reason,  and 
judged  by  its  verdict.  That  spirits,  as  well  as  mortals,  maj^ 
deceive  ;  that  they  may  be  influenced  by  vanity  or  ambition, 
and  may  afflict  us  by  verbose  twaddle,  is  one  of  the  facts 
which  Modern  Spiritualism  daily  discloses  ;  and  in  this  it  is 
doing  good  service,  if  we  only  have  the  wit  to  see  it :  for 
the  fact  explodes  some  ancient  and  respectable  errors  in 
regard  to  the  spirit-world. 

The  absence  of  these  considerations  leads  to  deplorable 
credulities.  That  spirits  may  sometimes  play  gross  hoaxes- 
on  unsuspectmg' mortals,  is  made  probable  b}^  the  history 


136  EVER-INCREASING  TESTIMONY. 

of  fanaticism  in  all  ages,  and  our  modem  experiences  go 
far  to  confirm  it  as  a  fact.  Hemy  More,  (1614-1687,)  the 
Platonic  philosopher  and  learned  Spiritualist,  who  was  him- 
self a  medium  for  certain  phj'sical  jDhenomena,  once  re- 
marked :  ' '  There  are  as  gr^at  fools  in  the  spirit-world  as 
there  ever  were  in  this."  Of  the  spirits  that  came  through 
Madame  Hauffe,  the  "  Seeress  of  Prevorst,"  Dr.  Kerner 
(1826)  relates  that  some  of  them  were  "foolish  and  trifling," 
and  some  "  much  poorer  and  more  destitute  than  spirits  in 
this  life  ever  showed  themselves  ; "  and  he  remarks  of  this 
seemingly  undivine  order  of  things,  "  What  I  here  in  the 
dust,  with  the  eje  of  a  mole,  regard  as  so  great  a  dishar- 
mon}^,  will  hereafter,  when  the  scales  fall  from  my  mole's- 
e3'e,  appear  as  harmony." 

The  importance  attached  to  the  utterances  of  "  trance- 
speakers  "  by  uncritical  or  inexperienced  Spiritualists,  has 
justty  excited  the  ridicule  of  those  who  detect  in  mere 
prolixity  and  florid  verbiage  very  human  failings.  Where 
the  utterance  or  the  knowledge  can  be  faMy  hypothecated 
as  coming  from  the  medium,  exercising  abnormal  i^owers, 
the  idea  of  the  intervention  of  a  foreign  spirit  ought  to  be 
dismissed. 

In  a  discourse  delivered  in  London,  July  11,  1880,  by 
Mrs.  Richmond,  the  gifted  American  "trance-speaker,"  I 
find  this  remark:  "To  say,  therefore,  there  has  been  an 
accurate  scientific  basis  of  Spiritualism,  is  to  say  that  ivJiich 
is  imjwssible.'*  Here  is  an  assertion  which  our  facts  plainly 
contradict,  and  which  the  so-called  "  controls"  themselves 
of  Mrs.  Richmond  contradict  in  other  parts  of  their  dis- 
course. 

If  the  facts  of  clairvoyance  and  direct  writing  have  reall}^ 
occurred,  and  are  reproducible,  are  they  not  as  much  facts 
of  science  as  the  neutralization  of  an  acid  by  an  alkali,  or 
the  appearance  of  the  aurora  borealis  ? 

"  Spiritualism,"  say  these  so-called  controls,  "  cannot  be 


UNSCIENTIFIC   OBJECTIONS.  137 

a  science.  It  is  more  than  science ;  it  is  beyond  human 
comprehension  in  the  pliysical  sense.  It  is  that  which, 
demonstrating  its  presence  to  the  senses,  leaxes  the  knowledge 
of  its  methods  entirel}^  outside  the  human  senses." 

Are  there  not  other  facts  of  nature  besides  Spirituahsm, 
which,  "demonstrating  tlieir  presence  to  the  senses,  leave 
the  knowledge  of  their  methods  entirely  outside  the  human 
senses  ?  "  Does  not  crj'stallograi^hy  do  the  same  ?  Do  we 
3"et  know  the  ' '  methods  "  by  which  comets  and  the  aurora 
borealis  come  into  existence  ?  Must  not  a  fact  that  ' '  de- 
monstrates its  presence  to  the  senses"  possess  the  first 
great  essential  of  a  fact  of  science,  however  ignorant  we 
may  remain  as  to  all  its  methods  and  causes?  See  how 
loosely  these  ' '  controls "  contradict  themselves  !  In  one 
sentence  w^e  are  told,  "That  which  3^ou  chiefly  have  to 
mind  is  to  knoiv  that  you  have  the  truth."  In  another 
sentence  these  same  "  controls"  assert  in  regard  to  spiritual 
phenomena,  "  The  verj'  testimony  upon  which  3-ou  seek  to 
establish  a  truth  evades  you  in  an  hour,  and  the  very  evi- 
dence that  3'ou  were  prepared  to  swear  by  has  the  next 
moment  turned  against  3^ou." 

What  shall  we  say  to  an  unreasoned  generalization  like 
this?  If  it  were  true,  there  would  be  no  tenable  truth  in 
Spiritualism.  We  should  have  to  keep  abandoning  our 
facts  as  fast  as  they  were  grasped.  Is  there  any  person 
who,  once  having  come  intelligently  into  possession  of  our 
facts,  has  been  known  to  deny  them?  The  construction  put 
on  them  may  var}'^ ;  but  the  facts  themselves,  once  thor- 
oughly tested,  are  the  mind's  inalienable  acquisition.  How 
will  the  following  passage  from  the  same  discourse  bear  the 
probe  of  critical  analysis  ? 

' '  There  has  been  test  after  test ;  there  have  been  evi- 
dences piled  mountains  high,  but  these  are  immeasurably 
greater  than  science."  (That  is,  too  great  to  be  known!) 
"They  are  immeasurably  be^'ond  the  scope  of  scientific 


138  EVER-INCREASING  TESTIMONY. 

thouglit  to-day ;  thej^  are  immeasurably  bej'ond  the  reach 
and  grasp  of  any  human  school  of  thought,"  (Are  not  many 
admitted  facts  be3'ond  human  explanation?)  "and  must 
belong  forever  to  that  region  of  super-science  upon  which 
the  truths  are  founded,  and  for  which  they  builded  their 
strongholds.  If  we  trust  to  science  to  demonstrate  Spirit- 
ualism it  will  pass  away  to-morrow,"  (Then  let  it  pass  !) 
"and  be  enrolled  among  the  failures  of  each  succeeding 
age.  If  we  trust  to  the  scientific  man,  he  will  catalogue  it 
his  own  way,  place  it  where  he  chooses  in  his  laboratory — 
a  manifestation  without  a  letter,  body  without  spirit,  a  law 
without  a  source  of  existence — it  will  become  one  of  the 
phenomenal  phases  of  the  universe,  which  the  scientific 
world  to-day  declares  is  without  an  intelligent  source  of 
being." 

"If  we  trust  to  the  scientific  man  !  "  But  the  scientific 
man  is  in  this  case  the  individual  Spiritualist  himself,  who 
has  studied  certain  phenomena,  objective  and  subjective, 
till  the}^  are  to  him  facts  of  science,  of  which  he  is  as  well 
assured  as  of  any  fact  in  hydraulics  or  in  chemistrj^  Has 
aot  Spiritualism  won  its  millions  without  the  aid  of  scien- 
ific  specialists  in  other  branches  ? 

Immediately  after  the  paragraph  last  quoted,  as  if  the 
•'  controls"  were  fooling  their  medium,  and  compelling  her 
unconsciously  to  keep  confuting  their  words,  they  say : 

"It  (Spiritualism)  has  a  source  of  being,  spiritual  and 
intelligent.  Its  methods  are  also  working  its  way  to  hu- 
manit}^,  according  to  their  needs  and  condition ;  it  mani- 
fests itself  through  the  senses^  because  you  require  it.  To 
those  who  have  spiritual  vision,  it  speaks  in  the  spirit ;  to 
those  who  have  the  power  of  inspiration,  there  is  no  need 
of  outward  sign  and  token.  But  to  the  dumb  and  dull 
human  sense,  they  must  needs  have  a  sign  and  token.  It 
breaks  through  the  barriers,  the  material  walls  that  sur- 
round 3'ou,  and  sa3'S,  '  If  j^ou  will  have  the  physical  voice, 
here  it  is  ;  if  you  will  have  the  physical  hand,  here  it  is.'" 

Having  been  told  that  Spiritualism  "manifests  itself 
through  the  senses "  because  we  require  it ;  and  also  that 


UNSCIENTIFIC   OBJECTIONS.  139 

what  we  ' '  chiefly  have  to  mind  is  to  hnoio  "  that  we  ' '  have 
the  truth,"  —  by  what  logical  consequence  are  we  debarred 
from  proving  the  truth  by  all  the  tests  that  science  (which 
is  knowledge)  can  apply  ? 

I  could  go  further  in  exposing  the  inconsistencies  of  this 
crude  and  shallow,  though  ludicrously  oracular  discourse  ; 
but  the  game  is  hardly  worth  the  candle.  What  I  have 
said  I  mean  as  no  reflection  on  the  lady  medium  herself, 
who  is  undoubtedly  a  person  of  rare  ability :  my  criticism 
applies  to  the  "  controls,"  under  whose  influence  she  would 
sometimes  seem  to  speak.  That  she  has  often,  while  be- 
lieving herself  to  be  controlled,  spoken  wisely  and  well  I 
do  not  doubt.  But  she  must  know  that  there  is  hardly  a 
prominent  investigator  at  this  time  who  has  not  committed 
himself  to  the  demonstrable  and  scientific  character  of 
some,  at  least,  of  our  phenomena. 

Who  is  the  scientific  expert?  There  is  no  one  who  can 
be  a  master  of  all  the  sciences.  In  order  to  partially  ac- 
quaint himself  with  only  one  or  two,  he  must  give  the  best 
part  of  his  life  to  stud}^  The  scientific  expert  in  regard 
to  elements  and  their  compounds  is  the  chemist ;  and  so 
the  scientific  exjpert  in  regard  to  the  subtile  phenomena  of 
Spiritualism  is  the  man  who  has  given  the  most  thought, 
time,  and  intelligence  to  the  study  of  them, — who  has 
corrected  the  most  mistakes  in  his  experience,  and  revised 
hasty  conclusions  the  most  thoroughly. 

The  conscious-automaton  theory  of  Huxley,  CliflTord,  and 
others,  who  afiect  the  tone  of  extreme  science,  is  that  the 
mind  is  pure  mechanism  ;  that  thoughts  follow  one  another 
in  a  certain  order ;  that  feeling  is  not  to  be  taken  into  the 
account :  to  which  Professor  James  replies  : 

"Many  persons  nowadays  seem  to  think  that  any  con- 
clusion must  be  very  scientific  if  the  arguments  in  favor  of 
it  are  all  derived  from  the  twitching  of  frogs'  legs,  —  espe- 
cially if  the  frogs  are  decapitated,  —  and  that  on  the  othei 


140  EVER-INCREASING   TESTIMONY. 

hand  an3^  doctrine  cliiefl}^  Touched  for  by  the  feelings  of 
human  beings,  with  heads  on  their  shoulders,  must  be  be- 
nighted and  superstitious.  The}'  seem  to  think,  too,  that 
au}^  vagar}'  or  whim,  however  unverified,  of  a  scientific 
man  must  needs  form  an  integral  part  of  science  itself; 
that  when  Huxle}',  for  example,  has  ruled  feehng  out  of  the 
game  of  life,  and  called  it  a  mere  bj'stander,  a  supernu- 
merar}',  the  matter  is  settled." 

This  eager  deglutition  of  everj^thing  materialistic  as  pe- 
culiarlj'  scientific  is  deplorable  indeed.  The  truth  is  that 
the  deductions  from  science,  and  from  all  that  relates  to 
the  functions  of  the  human  mind,  are  alike  the  results  of 
our  thinking  upon  the  phenomena  which  life  and  nature 
IDresent.  No  mode  of  thinking,  except  false,  illogical 
thinking,  can  be  in  conflict  'with  genuine  science  and  its 
teachings. 

Professor  T3'ndall,  who,  in  spite  of  his  attempts  to  de- 
fame the  subject,  seems  to  be  at  heart  a  good  Spiritualist, 
has  favored  us  with  an  account  of  his  investigations  into 
our  facts.  It  appears  that  at  a  certain  seance,  a  lady  said 
that  the  introduction  of  a  magnet  would  make  her  terribly 
ill,  and  that  she  would  instantly  know  of  the  presence  of 
one  on  entering  a  room.  The  ingenious  professor  had 
brought  with  him  a  magnet  in  Ms  pocket ;  and  yet  the  lady 
owned  that  she  was  particularly  well.  Ergo,  all  this  testi- 
mony by  Wallace,  Crookes,  Zollner,  and  the  rest  of  us,  is 
disproved,  and  Spirituahsm  must  be  dismissed  as  nothing 
but  ' '  intellectual  whoredom  !  " 

Again :  Professor  Tyndall  had  a  seance  with  a  certain 
"  warm-hearted  old  gentleman,"  who  imagined  that  a  table 
was  moved  by  spirits,  when  all  the  while  Tyndall  himself 
was  causing  it  to  vibrate.  "Believing,"  he  says,  "that 
the  disclosure  of  the  secret  would  provoke  anger,  I  kept  it 
to  myself."  So  it  would  seem  that  the  "  warm-hearted  old 
gentleman  "  took  it  for  granted  that  the  eminent  physicist 
was  as  honorable  and  sincere  as  he  was  himself  in  the  in- 


UNSCIENTIFIC   OBJECTIONS.  141 

yestigatioD  :  surely  a  not  UDpardonable  delusion,  and  one 
no  more  a  proof  of  the  old  gentleman's  Imbecilit}^  than  if 
he  had  accepted  a  spurious  guinea  from  Mr.  Tj^ndall,  sup- 
posing it  to  be  genuine. 

Such  experiences  have  about  as  much  force  against  Spir- 
itualism as  they  have  against  the  solar  sj'stem.  And  3'et 
the  rest  of  the  incidents  related  by  Tyndall  as  proofs  of 
the  thorough  manner  in  which  he  has  done  Spiritualism, 
are  of  no  higher  importance.  Felicitating  himself  upon 
the  issue  of  his  vast  expenditure  of  sagacity  and  labor  in 
investigating  the  question  whether  there  are  scientific 
proofs  of  spiritual  activity,  his  self-complacent  comment 
is:  "This,  then,  is  the  result  of  an  attempt,  made  by  a 
scientific  man,  to  look  into  the  spiritual  phenomena !  "  I 
will  resist  the  temptation  of  any  animadversion. 

Far  diflferent  is  the  temper  in  which  William  Crookes,  the 
chemist,  approaches  the  subject.  After  referring  (1876)  to 
the  modern  phenomena  as  "  occurring  to  an  almost  unpre- 
cedented extent,"  he  remarks  :  "  That  a  hitherto  unrecog- 
nized form  of  Force  exists  —  whether  it  be  called  psjxhic 
force  or  X  force  is  of  little  consequence  —  is  not  with  me 
a  matter  of  opinion,  but  of  absolute  knowledge;  but  the 
nature  of  that  force,  or  the  cause  which  immediately  ex- 
cites its  activit}^,  forms  a  subject  on  which  I  do  not  at 
present  feel  competent  to  offer  an  opinion." 

Such  is  the  wary  conclusion  of  an  accomplished  man  of 
science  who  has  tested  the  phenomena  laboriously  with  the 
aid  of  an  apparatus  jjroper  for  the  work.  Mr.  Crookes  is 
the  discoverer  of  the  new  metal,  thallium  ;  also  of  the 
supra-gaseous  state  in  which  matter  exists  in  high  vacua ; 
and  is  the  deviser  of  the  radiometer.  He  edits  the  London 
Quarterly  Journal  of  Science. 

' '  The  conditions  are  such  as  to  render  exact  results  im- 
possible," says  an  objector.  The  remark  is  directly  con- 
futed by  the  experiments  of  Hare,  Crookes,  Varley,  Bout- 
lerof,   Zollner,   WaUace,    Cox,   Wyld,   ^Y.   H.   Harrison, 


142  EVER-INCREASING   TESTIMONY. 

DensIoTT,  Ashburner,  and  more  than  a  liundred  more  inves- 
tigators known  to  science.  An3' man  maj^  obtain  "exact 
results  "  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  investigate  the  subject 
patientl}^  and  repeatedtyin  the  presence  of  tested  mediums. 
Mr.  F.  L.  H.  Wilhs,  a  gentleman  well  known  to  me, 
was  suspended  (1857)  from  the  divinity  school  of  Harvard 
University  on  a  charge  of  simulating  so-called  spiritual 
i:)henomena.  The  character  of  these  in  his  presence  was 
then  patiently  examined  into  by  Thomas  Wentworth  Hig- 
ginson,  well  known  both  in  England  and  America  as  an 
accomplished  gentleman  and  scholar,  and  who  tested  cer- 
tain facts  to  his  entire  satisfaction.  His  feet,  without  the 
shoes,  were  grasped  by  palpable  hands  ;  the  guitar  was 
played  on  "  accurately  and  gracefully,"  while  he  sang  sev- 
eral songs,  he  first  placing  the  guitar  "in  such  a  position 
as  to  guard  the  instrument  from  possibility  of  contact," 
and  it  being  "  beyond  the  reach  of  any  part  of  Mr.  Willis's 
person."  Mr.  Iligginson,  in  his  affidavit,  remarks:  "I 
cannot  play  the  guitar,  but  I  have  heard  it  played  a  good 
deal,  and  I  knoiu  that  the  accompaniment  was  an  extraor- 
dinary thiDg,  apart  from  the  mystery  of  its  origin."  He 
sa3's,  in  conclusion : 

"The  question  of  the  'spiritual  origin'  is  not  now 
raised  ;  it  is  a  simple  question  of  fraud  or  genuineness.  If 
I  have  not  satisfactory  evidence  of  the  genuineness  of  these 
phenomena,  which  I  have  just  described,  then  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  evidence,  and  all  the  fabric  of  natural  science 
may  be  a'^mass  of  imposture.  And  when  I  find,  on  exami- 
nation, that  facts  similar  to  these  have  been  observed  by 
hundreds  of  intelligent  persons,  in  various  places,  for  sev- 
eral years  back,  I  am  disposed  humbly  to  remember  the 
maxim,  attributed  to  Arago,  '  He  is  a  rash  man  who,  out- 
side of  pure  mathematics,  pronounces  the  word  impossible.' 
"Thos.  AVentworth  HiGGmsoN." 

''JVorcester,  ss.,  April  15,  1857.     Subscribed  and  sworn 
to  before  me. 

"Henry  Chapin,  Justice  of  the  Peace:' 


UNSCIENTIFIC   OBJECTIONS.  14o 

Automatic  writing  and  direct  spirit-WTiting  occurred  in 
Mr.  Willis's  presence  ;  and  several  times  there  was  an  ap- 
port  of  beautiful  and  fragrant  flowers,  under  conditions 
which  are  fully  explained  in  the  life  of  Mr.  Willis  {Banner 
of  Light,  June  7,  1879). 

After  being  fully  warned  as  to  the  impossible  and  there- 
fore delusive  character  of  the  phenomena  ;  after  having  the 
imaginar}^  sources  of  the  delusion  pointed  out ;  knowing, 
too,  that  all  the  prejudices  of  the  age  and  the  whole  tone 
of  educated  thought,  are  arra^'ed  against  the  reality  of 
such  facts,  — we  yet  see  that  the  conviction  of  their  gen- 
uineness is  forced  every  day  upon  such  scientific  men  as 
can  rise  above  the  prejudices  of  their  fellows,  and  venture 
to  investigate  an  ill-reputed  truth.  And  there  is  not  as 
3"et  a  known  instance  wherein  an  investigator  of  any  char- 
acter or  authority  has  changed  his  opinion  as  to  the  unex- 
plained occurrence  of  our  phenomena.  To  attribute  such 
convictions  to  "  a  diseased  faculty  of  wonder,"  is  simply 
to  mock  at  the  intellectual  integrity  of  the  witnesses, 
among  whom  are  hundreds  of  eminent  men,  whose  testi- 
mony on  any  other  subject  would  be  accepted  without 
question. 

"  It  must  be  remembered,"  says  Alfred  E.  Wallace,*  the 
well-known  naturalist,  "  that  we  have  to  consider,  not  ab- 
surd beliefs  or  false  influences,  but  plain  matters  of  fact ; 
and  it  never  has  been  proved,  and  cannot  be  proved,  that 
any  large  amount  of  cumulative  evidence  of  disinterested 
and  sensible  men  was  ever  obtained  for  an  absolute  and 
entire  delusion." 

He  further  says:  "I  maintain  that  human  testimony 
increases  in  value  in  such  an  enormous  ratio  with  each 
additional  independent  and  honest  witness,  that  no  fact 

*  Born  in  Ulsk,  Monmouthshire,  in  1822,  Mr.  Wallace  shares  with  Darwin  the 
honor  of  originating  the  doctrine  of  natural  selection.  He  is  one  of  the  most 
eminent  naturalists  of  the  day;  and  the  author  of  "  On  Miracles  and  Modern 
Spiritualism:  Three  Essays.    London,  James  Burns,  1875." 


144  EVER-INCREASING   TESTIMONY. 

ought  to  be  rejected  when  attested  by  such  a  body  of  evi- 
dence as  exists  for  mau}^  of  the  events  termed  miraculous 
or  supernatural,  and  which  occur  now  daily  among  us." 

"When  Spiritualism,"  we  are  told,  "will  submit  to  really 
scientific  investigation,  it  will  undoubtedly  receive  it." 
The  reply  is,  that  it  has  so  submitted,  and  so  received  it. 
It  has  submitted  openly,  repeatedlj^,  in  broad  daylight, 
where  ever}^  condition  that  the  investigator  could  reason- 
ably ask  has  been  granted.  Scientific  witnesses  enough  to 
establish  its  truth  forever  have  testified  to  the  reality  of 
its  phenomena.  It  has  come  out  triumphant  from  the  or- 
deal ;  and  no  scoffs  of  so-called  scientific  journals,  no  lead- 
ing articles,  however  clever  and  sarcastic,  can  now  affect 
the  impregnable  basis  of  pure  science  on  which  it  rests. 

Darius  L3'man,  of  Washington,  D.  C,  gives  some  apt 
illustrations  of  the  capacity  of  pseudo-science,  not  to  know 
when  she  is  not  in  the  humor  ; 

"If,  for  example,  upon  a  slate,  writing  should  be  pro- 
duced hundreds  of  tunes,  under  circumstances  absolutely 
precluding  any  chemical  processes,  or  any  mechanical  agency 
other  than  of  a  common  pencil,  that  fact  would  not  in  the 
estimate  of  science  be  sufficient  to  justifj^  the  inference  that 
a  person  in  intangible  presence  had  produced  the  writing. 

"  If  a  table  suspended  in  mid-air  were  made  to  jield 
intelligible  movements  in  the  presence  of  persons  having  no 
agenc}^  in  the  motion,  and  without  the  intervention  of  mech- 
anism appreciable  by  any  ordinary  liuman  sense,  that  fact 
would  not  warrant  the  inference  of  the  presence  of  an  in- 
tangible person  aiding  in  the  suspension. 

"If  a  well-known  tune  were  p>iayed  on  a  piano  without 
the  intervention  of  any  mechanism  distinct  from  the  instru- 
ment, or  of  any  automatic  appliances,  or  the  contact  of  any 
object  of  sufficient  consistency  to  be  at  once  visible  and 
tangible,  science  could  not  justify  the  inference  that  an 
intangible  person  did  the  playing. 

"If  three  persons,  the  solo  occupants  of  the  same 
chamber  and  the  same  house,  none  of  them  ventriloquists, 
should,  in  such  chamber  and  house  converse  with  an  audi- 


UNSCIENTIFIC   OBJECTIONS.  145 

ble  voice  aclclressed  to  all,  and  if  the  voice  sliould  commu- 
nicate to  each  one  facts  known  onl}^  to  each,  that  fact, 
according  to  science,  would  not  justify  the  conclusion  that 
the  voice  proceeded  from  a  person  who  lacked  the  attribute 
of  a  tangible  bod}',  and  was  not  one  of  the  three. 

"These  supposed  illustrations  exhibit  the  attitude  of 
science  to  the  alleged  facts  of  Spiritualism,  as  understood 
by  Professor  Youmans  and  Dr.  Carpenter.  No  amount  of 
testimony  is  adequate  to  verify  the  alleged  facts  ;  no  logic 
known  to  science  is  sufficient  to  warrant  an  inference  from 
an}^  facts  of  the  existence  or  intervention  of  spirits,  or  the 
reality  of  any  supersensual  world  ! 

' '  The  behavior  of  the  loadstone  is  thought  bj-  scientific 
men  to  warrant  the  inference  of  a  magnetic  force  ;  a  stroke 
from  the  Ley  den  jar  indubitably  proves  the  presence  of  an 
electric  force  ;  the  fall  of  an  apple  establishes  the  realitj"  of 
the  force  of  gravit3%  Yet  no  human  sense  can  directly 
cognize  any  one  of  these  forces.  They  are  simply  inferred 
from  motions  of  bodies.  They  belong  entirely  to  the  super- 
sensual  world.  Because  they  are  impersonal^  though 
strictly  supersensual,  science  can  manage  to  put  on  them 
the  seal  of  its  approval. 

"But  other  forces  equally  supersensual,  revealed  like 
gravity  and  magnetism  in  insulated  cases  of  the  disturbance 
of  the  state  of  solid  substances,  science  cannot  recognize, 
because  they  are  personal^  and  reveal  human  intelligence 
and  affection  existing  in  modes  hitherto  undreamed  of. 
There  is  danger,  probably,  if  science  recognizes  any  such 
forces  upon  any  testimony,  that  man  ma}^  be  discovered  to 
be  capable  of  surviving  death  !  " 

Mr.  John  Fiske,  the  distinguished  cosmic  philosopher, 
stigmatizes  as  ' '  totemism  "  the  spiritual  belief  of  such  per- 
sons as  Franz  Hoffman,  editor  of  Baader's  philosophical 
works,  Immanuel  H.  Fichte,  son  of  Kant's  great  contem- 
porary, Alfred  R.  Wallace,  Frederic  Tennyson,  Elizabeth 
Barrett  Browning,  and  not  a  few  others,  reputed  as  clever 
in  their  way.  Mr.  Fiske  makes  a  somewhat  elaborate 
attempt  to  console  us  for  the  absence  of  all  rational  proofs 
of  an  hereafter,  by  considerations  which  I  will  leave  it  for 
10 


146  EVER-INCREASING  TESTIMONY. 

my  friend,  Mr.  Lj^man,  to  set  forth  with  his  happy  combi-i 
nation  of  science  and  wit : 

"  Mr.  Fiske  flatters  the  man  of  science  with  an  attempted 
proof  that  no  proper  spiritual  world  can  be  an  object  of 
knowledge ;  and  seeming  to  feel  that  such  an  argument 
might  possibly  be  too  much  for  the  theologian  to  accept 
without  grimaces,  he  soothes  the  latter  with  arguments 
tending  to  reconcile  him  to  a  spiritual  world  according  to 
the  taste  of  savans,  by  showing  the  strong  probabilities  in 
favor  of  its  reality  arising  from  the  consideration  that  a 
scintilla  of  actual  light  can  never  come  from  it." 

' '  The  upshot  of  the  whole  is  :  That  if  there  is  a  spiritual 
world  it  is  absolutely  divorced  from  matter,  and  there  is  no 
bridge  to  it  for  human  thought ;  and  secondly,  we  cannot 
even  imagine  souls  except  in  a  sort  of  physical  organism 
(with  which,  of  course,  they  have  '  no  community  of 
nature')  ;  and  thirdly,  if  they  exist  after  death,  there  is, 
therefore,  no  possible  means  of  our  knowing  it  in  this  life. 
The  critic  does  not  enunciate  these  several  propositions, 
but  they  underlie  his  charming  rhetoric  and  logic. 

"The  comfort  afforded  to  the  theologian  is  not  very 
great ;  but  after  he  has  secured  a  spiritual  world  incom- 
municably  separate  from  this,  he  ought  to  be  thankful  for 
small  additional  favors.  He  is  saved  from  the  clutches  of 
science  in  this  way  :  Though  a  spiritual  world  must  be  ut- 
terly divorced  from  all  effective  connection  with  this,  and  is 
even  inconceivable,  that  inconceivability  is  no  proof  of  its 
unrealit3^  For  be  it  known  to  the  doctors  of  theology, 
that  (p.  48)  — 

"  *  Since  our  inability  to  conceive  anything  is  limited  by  the  extent 
of  our  experience,  and  since  human  experience  is  very  far  from  being 
infinite,  it  follows  that  there  may  be,  and  in  all  probability  is,  ( !  ) 
an  immense  region  of  .existence  in  every  way  as  real  as  the  region 
which  we  know,  yet  concerning  which  we  cannot  form  the  faintest 
rudiment  of  a  conception.'  [Is  not  this  the  proper  domain  of  faith?] 
'  Any  hypothesis  relating  to  such  a  region  of  existence  is  not  only 
disproved  by  the  total  failure  of  evidence  in  its  favor,  but  the  total 
failure  of  evidence  in  its  favor  does  not  raise  even  the  slightest  primd 
facie  presumption  against  its  validity.' 

"And  let  the  theological  doctor  take  notice,  that  '  These 
considerations  apply  with  great  force  to  the  hypothesis  of  9 


UNSCIENTIFIC   OBJECTIONS.  147 

world  in  which  psychical  phenomena  persist  in  the  absence 
of  material  conditions.'  And  let  him  further  observe,  that 
'  It  is  true  on  the  one  hand,  that  we  can  bring  up  no  scien- 
tific evidence  in  support  of  such  an  hypothesis.  But  on 
the  other  hand,  it  is  equally  true  that  in  the  very  nature  of 
things  no  such  evidence  could  be  expected  to  be  forth- 
coming ;  even  were  there  such  evidence  in  abundance,  it 
could  not  be  accessible  to  us.  The  existence  of  a  single 
soul,  or  congeries  of  psychical  phenomena,  unaccompanied 
by  a  material  body,  would  be  evidence  sufficient  to  demon- 
strate the  h3'pothesis.  But  in  the  nature  of  things,  even 
were  there  a  million  such  souls  round  about  us,  we  could 
not  become  aware  of  the  existence  of  one  of  them,  for  we 
have  no  organ  or  faculty  for  the  perception  of  soul  apart 
from  the  material  structure  and  activities  in  which  it  has 
been  manifested  throughout  the  whole  course  of  our  expe- 
rience.' 

"  So  the  theologian  can  understand  that  the  strongest 
proof  we  have  of  a  spiritual  world  incommunicably  separate 
from  matter,  is  that  it  is  neither  conceivable  nor  in  the  line 
of  the  analogies  of  experience  !".... 

"  The  antagonist  school  of  Materialists  pure  and  simple, 
is  alike  incapable  of  accepting  the  alleged  fact  of  mate- 
rialization. The  fundamental  postulate  of  this  class  of 
persons  is,  that  there  can  be  no  qualities  in  matter  that  are 
not  matter.  Indeed,  with  them  it  is  absurd  to  talk  of  the 
qualities  of  matter  ;  for  the  very  words, '  qualities  of  matter,' 
convey  the  implication  that  there  is  in  matter  something 
not  matter —  which  would  be  a  very  dangerous  admission  ; 
for  that  something  not  matter  might  possibly  be  more 
potent  than  matter  itself.  But  aside  from  this  h3^per- 
physical  objection  of  the  Materialists  to  the  existence  of 
something  latent  in  matter  which  is  not  matter,  there  is  to 
them  a  greater  one.  And  that  is,  that  the  alleged  material- 
ization of  spirits  concedes  the  possibility  of  the  action  upon 
ph3^sical  substances  of  an  order  of  persons  ivJio  are  intrinsi- 
cally inappreciable  by  the  ordinary  senses.  This  concession 
would,  in  their  view,  be  a  concession  of  the  reality  of 
miracles ;  and  as  miracles  are  impossible,  materialization 
is  impossible. 

"  This  objection  rests  upon  a  wrong  conception  of  what 
should  be  considered  a  miracle.     Though  it  is  admitted 


148  EVER-INCREASING  TESTIMONY. 

tliat  a  miracle  is  not  possible,  it  is  well  to  define  what  it 
should  be  thought  to  be,  if  it  were  possible.  The  ordinary 
definition  —  a  violation  of  the  laws  of  nature  —  defines 
nothing ;  for  ever}'  fact  entirely  new  in  human  experience, 
being  in  conflict  with  all  former  experience,  is  to  the 
observer  a  violation  of  the  laws  of  nature.  And  as  the 
totalit}"  of  the  order  of  nature  can  never  be  known,  it  can- 
not be  known  that  something  entirely  new  to  that  order  (so 
far  as  experience  goes)  may  not  occur.  Our  definition  of 
a  miracle,  therefore,  should  show  on  its  face  that  it  is 
essentially  impossible."  .  .  . 

"At  first  thought,  one  would  be  inclined  to  credit  the 
theologians  wdth  a  ready  predisposition  to  faith  in  the  fact 
of  materialization.  .  .  .  Why,  then,  is  the  alleged  modern 
fact  of  materialization  so  distressingly  offensive  to  them? 

"Because,  if  a  fact,  its  tendency  is  to  depress  human 
authority  in  matters  of  religion,  to  make  every  man  his 
own  mediator,  and  thus  to  do  aw^ay  with  that  army  of  cler- 
g3^men  and  priests  who  perform  —  honestly,  it  may  be  — 
fictitious  services  of  mediation  between  God  and  others  than 
themselves.  There  is  a  very  large  class  whose  interest  it 
is  to  make  the  access  to  God,  or  the  gods,  as  circuitous  as 
possible.  Like  all  middle-men,  they  do  not  like  compen- 
dious methods  for  the  exchange  of  commodities.  But 
when  our  invisible  friends,  called  spirits,  invest  themselves 
temporarily  in  the  masks  of  bodies,  and  demonstrate  that 
death  is  dead,  the  one  stupendous  horror  of  all  the  ages 
lays  aside  its  Gorgon  head,  men  gain  courage  to  treat  with 
the  Invisible  God  for  themselves,  and  the  reign  of  the 
priest,  so  far  as  it  rests  in  cowardly  superstition,  draws  to 
a  sensible  close.  Such  a  result  is  alarming  to  the  theolo- 
gians. The  fear  of  death,  and  of  what  follows  after,  is 
their  capital,  and  the  principal  source  of  their  influence 
over  the  people.  If  spirits  do  appear  visibly  and  tangibly, 
and  if  they  shall  continue  to  appear,  all  men  will  manage 
their  post  mortem  concerns  for  themselves,  and  will  not 
look  to  the  '  ambassadors  of  Christ '  for  any  very  reliable, 
instruction  in  those  matters.  Tlie  materiahzation  of  spirits 
carrying  all  these  dire  influences  with  it,  as  the  seed  carries 
the  germ  of  the  future  tree,  must  of  course,  to  the  theolo- 
gians, be  unreal."  .   .   . 

"  The   efi'ect   upon   the    fastidious    tastes    of   difl*erent 


UNSCIENTIFIC   OBJECTIONS.  149 

schools  of  thinkers  of  the  alleged  materialization  of  spirits, 
has  its  comic  aspects  to  such  as  are  willing  to  admit  ex- 
traordinary facts  upon  reasonable  evidence.  The  shock 
such  alleged  facts  must  give  to  all  such  as  S3'mpathize  with 
Mr.  Fiske,  and  who  believe  in  no  such  spiritual  world  as 
can  come  in  connection  with  matter,  is  abundantly  ludi- 
crous. This  class  consists  of  students  of  the  old  psychol- 
ogy, who  have  formed  their  notions  of  spirits  from  specu- 
lations on  the  laws  of  abstract  thought  and  on  the  various 
forms  of  emotion.  With  them  it  is  an  axiom  that  matter 
is  alwa3^s  essentially  tangible,  and  that  spirit,  being  the 
perfect  opposite  of  matter,  has  no  necessary  or  conceivable 
contact  with  it. 

"How  thoroughly  this  postulate  pervades  Mr.  Fiske's 
speculations,  will  be  evident  from  the  extracts  from  his 
essay  already  cited,  and  particular^  from  the  unction  with 
which  he  reproduces  the  famous  dictum  of  Descartes. 
This  school  must  deny  the  possibility  of  materialization. 
For  the  presence  of  a  material  form  in  no  case  can  guar- 
antee the  presence  of  a  soul.  For  according  to  their  logic, 
there  can  be  no  spirit  in  living  contact  with  matter,  nor  any 
matter  in  vital  contact  with  spirit.  As  there  is  no  rational 
evidence  for  them  that  a  spiritual  part  animates  living  hu- 
man beings,  the  theorj^  that  a  spiritual  force  or  being 
can  animate  a  temporary  form  of  matter,  and  dissolve  it 
again  in  thin  air,  must  be  for  them  in  the  last  degree  pre- 
posterous. As  their  conceited  ignorance  has  sounded  the- 
utmost  possibilities  of  nature,  why  should  one  attempt  to 
convince  them  of  the  reality  of  facts  which  put  all  their 
vain  philosophy  to  shame?  Their  suffrages  for  the  truth 
are  not  worth  the  trouble  of  winning." 

"  There  is  another  class  of  persons  that  affect  a  knowl- 
edge of  scientific  methods,  who  are  quite  sure  that  if  a 
speaking,  tangible  form  should  suddenly  appear  in  a  closed 
room,  to  which  no  person  but  the  spectators  could  gain 
admission,  should  verif}^  its  presence  to  the  senses  of  sight 
and  touch,  should  converse  in  an  audible  voice  on  topics 
familiar  only  to  each  witness,  and  should  then  as  suddenly 
vanish,  there  would  still  be  no  proof  in  such  a  manifesta- 
tion of  the  presence  of  a  spirit.  How  such  a  reasoner  can 
with  any  certainty  identify  a  fiiend  on  Monday  whom  he 
had  last  seen  on  the  preceding  Sunday,  passes  my  compre- 
hension.   For  the  real  friend  he  has  never  really  seen.  .  .  . 


150  EVER-INCREASING   TESTIMONY. 

This  pretentions  display  of  doubt  in  regard  to  the  spiritual 
agency  involved  in  such  a  case  as  is  supposed,  is  of  all 
claims  to  superior  acuteness  the  most  shallow  and  con- 
temptible." 

"All  base  things  have  their  day.  Whj^  should  not  the 
prejudice  of  the  savans,  the  bigotrj^  of  the  theologians,  the 
pretensions  of  the  sciolist,  be  allowed  to  have  theirs  ?  .  .  . 
The  wave  of  the  new  movement  will  continue  to  rise 
slowly  but  surety,  and  it  will  never  retire  till  all  the  objec- 
tions and  cavils  of  the  prejudiced  many  that  do  not  discern 
the  signs  of  the  times  are  sunk  in  everlasting  oblivion. 
Our  facts  depend  for  their  acceptance  on  no  person's  pat- 
ronage ;  the  pressure  of  ridicule  cannot  extinguish  or  thrust 
them  out  of  view.  Steadil^y  increasing  in  number,  variety, 
and  beauty,  they  are  competent  to  win  their  own  waj^  to 
general  recognition." 

In  a  paper  written  in  repl}^  to  Mr.  Youmans,  of  the 
Popular  Science  Monthly^  Mr.  Lj^man  says  : 

"  Professor  Youmans  acknowledges  no  spiritual  world 
other  than  thoughts  and  emotions  correlated  to  matter,  no 
spiritual  world  in  which  moral  agents  exist  intrinsicalty 
inappreciable  b}^  au}^  of  the  senses,  no  spiritual  world 
above  the  sensuous  order.  But  the  non-recognition  of 
such  a  world  is  just  what,  in  popular  language,  constitutes 
materialism.  The  popular  apprehension  has  not  3'et  re- 
duced the  hemisphere  of  being  opposed  to  matter  to  a 
nebulous  mass  of  sensations,  perceptions,  conceptions,  and 
feelings."  .   .   . 

"  The  facts  of  Spiritualism  certainly  answer  to  all  the 
criteria  of  the  subjects-matter  of  any  science,  as  laid  down 
b}'  Professor  Youmans.  They  are  such  facts  as  have  been, 
and  still  are,  repeatedly  experienced.  They  are  not  only 
accessible  to  the  normal  action  of  the  human  faculties,  but 
most  of  them  are  quite  palpable  to  the  senses.  The  va- 
riety in  which  the}'  occur  renders  them  susceptible  of  clas- 
sification and  methodized  knowledge,  and  thus  suggests  that 
the  law  of  their  genesis  and  evolution  can  be  compre- 
hended." .  .   . 

"  Common  people  believe  in  a  supersensual  world,  in 
which  moral  beings  hold  intercourse  with  one  another  in 


UNSCIENTIFIC   OBJECTIONS.  151 

modes  transcending  the  ordinaiy  reach  of  the  senses  ;  they 
have  never  imagined  a  spiritual  world,  inhabited  onl}-  by 
thoughts,  emotions,  and  volitions  floating  loose  from 
souls."  ... 

"All  ari^ument  ao^ainst  the  occasional  intervention  of 
spirits  in  mundane  affairs,  on  the  ground  of  its  impossibil- 
ity, or  its  incompatibilit}^  with  the  laws  of  nature,  is  simply 
frivolous.  There  are  no  known  laws  of  nature  that  pre- 
clude it.  The  weight  of  human  experience  is  against  such 
facts,  but  that  experience  is  in  favor  of  facts  every  whit  as 
mysterious.  On  the  contrar}^,  there  is  a  steadily  augment- 
ing experience  in  favor  of  spiritual  intervention  coming 
through  phenomena  addressed  to  every  sense,  and  indicat- 
ing a  tendency  to  issue  in  an  intercourse  between  ours  and 
the  supersensual  world,  constant,  regular,  and  rigorously 
conditioned." 

Here  I  would  again  call  attention  to  the  circumstance 
that  I  claim  for  my  basis  the  great  verified  facts  of  clair- 
voyance, as  proved  in  the  reading  of  closely-folded  papers, 
and  of  direct  w^riting,  as  proved  in  the  German  experi- 
ments with  Slade,  in  those  of  hundreds  of  well-known  per- 
sons in  England  and  America,  and  in  my  own  experiments 
with  Watkins  and  others.  To  the  phenomena  analogous 
with  these,  and  corroborated  by  them,  I  may  frequently 
refer,  and  assume  them  as  true  without  including  them  in 
my  basis.  And  so,  with  regard  to  the  Spiritual  hypoth- 
esis :  I  shall  assume  that  we  have  evidences  of  spirit 
power,  both  in  the  two  t3^pical  facts,  which  have  been  sci- 
entificall}^  confirmed,  and  in  others  where  the  proofs  have 
not  been  so  cumulative  and  direct  as  we  may  expect 
them  to  be  as  the  developments  go  on.  But  it  is  not 
for  the  spiritual  hypothesis  that  I  have  an}'^  concern, 
since  it  is  one  to  which  all  the  facts  inevitabl3"  lead,  and 
without  which  many  of  the  higher  phenomena  cannot  be 
explained. 

In  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  there  recently  appeared 
a  paper  by  Dr.  Gairdner,  of  Edinburgh,  in  opposition  to 
Spiritualism.     Assuming  that  we   have  "  absolute   proof 


152  EVER-INCREASING  TESTIMONY. 

and  evidence  "  in  our  own  souls  and  bodies  of  a  future  for 
man,  he  would  discredit  any  attempt  to  investigate  the  im- 
portant phenomena  which  invite  our  attention.  But  he 
fails  to  show  where  the  "  absolute  proof"  is  to  be  found, 
that  shall  be  satisfactory  to  many  earnest  and  critical 
minds.  No  fact  can  be  more  notorious  than  that  of  the 
present  skepticism  and  utter  unbelief  in  regard  to  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul  among  a  large  class  of  intelhgent 
persons.  He  who  shuts  his  eyes  to  this  fact  can  do  so  only 
bj^  ignoring  what  is  written,  published,  and  preached  every 
day. 

Dr.  Gairdner  naivelj^  asks,  If  such  a  fact  as  clairvoyance 
exists,  what  is  there  to  prevent  a  sensitive  from  reading 
your  private  papers  in  your  locked  drawers?  Truly,  I 
know  of  nothing  to  prevent  it,  except  the  absence  of  con- 
ditions or  the  lack  of  power.  I  have  repeatedl}^  known  a 
clairvoj'ant  to  detect  not  only  my  unspoken  thoughts,  but 
to  read  what  I  had  written  on  a  slip  of  paper,  and  then 
had  rolled  tightly  into  a  pellet  or  wad,  which  he  did  not 
even  touch  except  with  the  point  of  a  pencil.  Why  he 
cannot  always  read  a  paper  that  lies  folded  in  my  friend's 
pocket  or  in  a  locked  drawer,  I  cannot  say.  But  how  our 
ignorance  of  one  fact  can  impair  our  absolute  knowledge 
of  another,  I  also  fail  to  see. 

"If  clairvo3'ance  is  true,"  sa^'s  Dr.  Gairdner,  "  there  is 
nothing  to  prevent  a  spirit  from  getting  possession  of  a 
private  paper,  and  publishing  it."  And  then  he  adds  ; 
"  But  it  has  been  shown  that  this  cannot  be  done."  The 
assertion  is  about  as  reasonable  as  it  would  be  to  say,  that 
because  a  prize  had  been  offered  to  the  man  who  could  leap 
a  ditch  twenty  feet  wide,  and  the  prize  had  not  been  won, 
therefore  it  had  been  proved  that  the  feat  could  not  be 
accomplished. 

To  what  does  Dr.  Gairdner  refer  as  his  proof?  Why,  to 
the  tradition  among  skeptics  that  a  certain  person  once 


UNSCIENTIFIC   OBJECTIONS.  153 

placed  a  hundred-pound  note  in  a  sealed  envelope  in  the 
Bank  of  England,  and  promised  to  give  it  to  any  one  who 
could  tell  the  number ;  but  the  prize  was  never  won : 
therefore^  according  to  our  logical  opponent,  there  is  na 
such  thing  as  clairvoyance  ;  it  is  "  in  fact  impossible." 

The  conclusion  is  of  the  order  styled  fast.  Belief  in 
clairvoyance,  the  Doctor  tells  us,  comes  from  "  a  diseased 
condition  of  the  faculty  of  wonder."  Truly  a  luminous  dis- 
covery, worthy  to  be  recorded  in  a  scientific  journal !  He 
should  have  learned  that  -clairvoj^ance  does  not  proceed 
from  a  simple  effort  of  the  will ;  it  is  the  unforced  exercise, 
often  involuntarj^,  of  a  transcendent  spiritual  faculty. 
Schopenhauer,  the  eccentric  German  philosopher,  relates 
that  he  once  told  his  landlady  in  Milan  the  numbers  of  two 
lottery  tickets  which  she  had  bought ;  but  when  she  began 
to  praise  him  for  his  wonderful  cleverness,  he  was  discon- 
certed, his  passive  state  was  at  an  end,  and  he  blundered 
in  his  attempt  to  tell  the  number  of  the  third  ticket. 

The  recollection  of  a  name  or  of  a  word  cannot  be  forced 
by  an  eff'ort  of  volition.  How  often  we  strive  to  recall 
something,  and  the  more  we  strive  the  more  unattainable 
seems  to  be  the  reminiscence  !  We  give  up  the  pursuit, 
lapse  into  a  passive  state,  and  then,  all  at  once  perhaps, 
the  word,  name,  or  event  comes  back  tons  clearly  and  com- 
pletely. 

The  deliverances  of  the  memory  are  not  subject  alwa3'S 
to  the  will ;  and  so  it  is  with  clairvoyance.  Like  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  it  does  not  come  "  by  observation."  There 
is  an  intelligent  power  in  man,  no  more  under  the  control 
of  his  will  than  are  his  involuntar}^  muscles.  We  know  not 
whence  it  cometh,  nor  whither  it  goeth.  It  transcends  the 
outward  senses  ;  and  from  it  comes  the  light  that  enlight- 
eneth  every  man  who  comes  into  the  world,  even  though  its 
revelations  may  be  rejected  and  contradicted  by  the  spec- 
ulative intellect,  which  thinks  itself  the  wiser. 


154  EVER-INCREASING  TESTIMONY. 

To  Locke's  proposition  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  mind 
that  has  not  come  to  it  through  the  senses,  Leibnitz  made 
the  famihar  reply  :  "Except  the  mind  itself."  The  reason- 
ing faculty  which  confirms  the  experience  that  the  whole  is 
greater  than  a  j)art,  or  that  a  straight  line  is  the  shortest 
distance  between  two  points,  is  not  a  derivation  from  the 
senses.  As  Mr.  David  A.  Wasson  well  remarks  :  it  is  as 
much  innate  as  ' '  the  potency  of  a  beard  is  innate  in  the 
boy." 

The  late  Selden  J.  Finney,  philosopher  and  spiritualist, 
wisely  says  :  "  If  an  axiom  be  only  subjectively  true,  then 
it  lies,  for  it  is  given  as  universal  and  necessary,  and  hence 
as  objectively  true.  To  deny  its  objective  truth  is  to  con- 
tradict the  axiom  itself.  And  if  it  be  said  that  we  cannot 
prove  this,  I  answer,  we  must  take  our  reason  for  the  ulti- 
mate mental  sovereign.  And  even  a  denial  of  such  trust- 
worthiness is  confession  of  the  sovereignty  of  reason  it- 
self ;  for  we  are  able  to  deny  a  mental  proposition  only  by 
the  assumption  of  a  competent  authority  in  mind.  We 
must  accept  the  primary  laws  and  ideas,  axioms  of  reason, 
as  authoritative  and  suj^reme,  whether  or  no." 

Here  is  a  specimen  of  what  Alexis  Didier,  the  Parisian 
clairvo^'ant,  could  do  :  ^ —  Some  years  ago,  Mme.  Celleron, 
wife  of  the  proprietor  of  the  "  Villes  de  France,  rue  Vivi- 
enne,"  lost  her  watch  at  Neuilly.  Presuming  that  she 
might  have  left  it  in  the  carriage  which  convej'ed  her  there, 
she  went  to  Alexis  to  make  some  inquiries  in  regard  to  the 
driver  ;  but  as  soon  as  she  was  in  communication  with  the 
somnambulist  he  told  her  that  her  watch  had  been  found 
by  a  soldier.  "Wait,"  he  added,  "and  I  will  read  the 
number  on  his  shako  —  it  is  57  ;  this  soldier  is  in  garrison 
at  Courbevoie,  and  his  name  is  Vincent."  The  lady  has- 
tened to  Courbevoie,  and  applied  to  M.  Othenin,  chief  of 
battaUon,  who  ordered  a  general  inspection  of  the  com- 
panies.    But  at  that  moment  a  soldier  came  out  of  the 


UNSCIENTIFIC   OBJECTIONS.  155 

ranks  and  presented  the  watch,  which  he  had  found  near 
the  bridge  of  Neuill}^  adding,  that  his  mihtary  duties  had 
prevented  his  making  the  proper  efforts  to  find  the  owner. 
Upon  the  officer's  demanding  his  name,  he  replied  Vincent. 

In  February,  1850,  an  English  lady,  once  the  pupil  of 
the  celebrated  pianist  Chopin,  learning  that  he  was  ill,  and 
suspecting  that  he  was  in  want  of  monej",  sent  him  by  mail 
a  bank-note  for  250  francs.  Some  months  afterwards, 
while  visiting  in  Paris,  she  called  on  her  illustrious  teacher 
and  asked  if  the  remittance  had  been  received.  On  Cho- 
pin's replying  in  the  negative,  the  lady,  accompanied  by 
Count  de  Grisimola,  called  on  Alexis,  who  told  her  that  the 
letter  with  its  contents  would  be  found  at  the  domicil  of 
the  porteress  of  M.  Chopin,  in  the  drawer  of  a  commode,  the 
position  of  which  he  indicated.  The  lady  hastened  to  verify 
this  information,  and  it  was  found  exact.  The  letter  had 
been  received  in  the  absence  of  the  porteress  by  a  laboring 
woman,  who  had  put  it  in  the  drawer  of  the  commode,  and 
had  forgotten  to  say  anything  about  it. 

On  one  occasion  a  milliner  of  the  rue  Neuve-des-Matha- 
rins,  No.  5,  having  lost  a  valuable  dog,  to  which  she  v/as 
much  attached,  came  to  Alexis  to  learn  if  he  could  put  her 
in  the  way  of  finding  it.  He  directed  her  to  go  at  once  to 
the  St.  Germain  railroad  terminus,  where  she  would  recover 
her  dog,  which  was  about  to  be  offered  there  for  sale.  She 
went  to  the  place  indicated,  but  not  finding  what  she  sought 
returned  to  Alexis,  complaining  of  the  false  instructions  he 
had  given  her.  "You  are  right,  madame,"  said  he ;  "I 
was  too  precipitate  ;  I  announced  as  occurring  at  the  ver}^ 
moment  what  w^as  not  to  take  place  till  some  minutes  after- 
wards ;  return  whence  you  came,  and  joxxr  search  will  be 
crowned  with  success."  She  did  as  directed,  and  this  time 
Alexis  had  not  been  in  fault  in  his  clairvoyance.  His 
thought  had  run  before  the  attempt  of  the  fellow  who  was 


156  EVER-INCREASING  TESTIMONY. 

going  to  sell  the  clog.     The  lady  recovered  the  animal  as 
had  been  promised. 

The  following  letter  will  show  what  estimate  the  most 
celebrated  of  French  conjurors,  Robert  Houdin,  put  upon 
the  manifestations  in  the  presence  of  Alexis  : 

Monsieur  :  As  I  had  the  honor  of  informing  j-ou,  I  had 
a  second  seance ;  that  at  which  I  assisted  yesterday  at 
Marcillet's  was  even  more  marvellous  than  the  first,  and 
left  no  longer  any  doubt  on  my  mind  as  to  the  lucidity  of 
Alexis.  I  presented  mj'self  at  this  sitting  with  the  pre- 
determination of  closely  watching  the  game  of  ecarte  which 
had  astonished  me  so  much.  Tliistime  I  took  even  greater 
precautions  than  at  the  first  trial ;  for,  distrusting  mj^self, 
I  took  one  of  my  friends  as  a  companion,  whose  calm  char- 
acter could  appreciate  coolly  and  establish  a  sort  of  equi- 
librium in  my  judgment. 

Here  is  what  passed,  and  jou  can  judge  whether  s?i5tiZiYes 
could  ever  produce  effects  like  those  I  am  about  to  cite.  I 
unsealed  a  pack  of  cards  brought  by  me,  and  the  envelope 
of  which  I  had  marked  so  that  it  could  not  be  changed.  I 
shuffled  and  got  the  deal.  I  dealt  with  all  the  precautions 
of  a  man  skilled  in  the  finesse  of  his  art.  Useless  pre- 
cautions !  Alexis  checks  me,  and  pointing  out  to  me  one  of 
the  cards  which  I  had  just  placed  before  him  on  the  table, 
says,  "  I  have  the  king  !  "  "  But  3'ou  know  nothing  about 
it  yet,  since  the  trump-card  is  not  given  out."  "  You  will 
see,"  he  replied.  In  effect  I  turned  up  the  eight  of  dia- 
monds, and  his  card  was  the  king  of  diamonds.  The  game 
was  continued  in  rather  an  odd  manner,  for  he  told  me  in 
advance  the  cards  which  I  ought  to  play,  although  I  had 
them  concealed  under  the  table,  and  pressed  in  my  hands. 
At  everj^  pla}^  he  would  present  one  of  his  own  cards  with- 
out turning  it  up,  and  it  was  invariably  found  to  be  the  card 
en  rapiiort  with  that  which  I  had  m3^self  played. 

I  have  then,   returned  from  this  seance  as  much  over- 
whelmed with  astonishment  as  I  could  well  be,  and  per- 
suaded that  it  is  altogether  impossible  that  either  chance  or 
address  could  have  produced  effects  so  marvellous. 
Recevez,  Monsieur,  etc. 

Signe:  Robeet  Hotjdin,  May  16,  1847. 

To  the  Marquis  de  Mirville. 


UNSCIENTIFIC   OBJECTIONS.  157 

But  Alexis,  who  by  flashes  could  do  such  marvels,  wag 
not  unfrequently  at  fault,  according  to  his  own  confession. 
He  says  :  "The  chief  feature  of  the  somnambulic  lucidity 
is  its  variability.  While  the  conjuror  or  juggler,  at  all  mo- 
ments in  the  day  and  before  all  spectators,  will  invariably 
succeed,  the  somnambulist,  endowed  with  the  marvellous 
power  of  clairvo^^ance,  will  not  be  lucid  with  all  interview- 
ers and  at  all  moments  of  the  da}^ ;  for  the  faculty  of  lucid- 
ity being  a  crisis  painful  and  abnormal,  there  ma}"  be  at- 
mospheric influences  or  invincible  antipathies  at  work  op- 
posing its  production,  and  which  seem  to  parah^ze  all  super- 
sensual  manifestations.  Intuition,  clairvoj^ance,  lucidit}', 
are  faculties  which  the  somnambulist  gets  from  the  nature 
of  his  temperament,  and  which  are  rarely  developed  in 
force." 

Again  he  says  :  ' '  The  somnambnlic  lucidity  varies  in  a 
wa}^  to  make  one  despair ;  success  is  continually  followed 
by  failure  ;  in  a  word,  error  succeeds  to  truth ;  but  when 
one  analyzes  the  causes  of  this,  no  right-minded  person  will 
bring  up  the  charge  of  charlatanism,  since  the  faculty  is 
subject  to  influences  independent  of  the  will  and  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  clairvoyant." 

Hudson  Tuttle,  the  estimable  medium  of  Berlin  Heights, 
Ohio,  was  at  one  time  clairvoyant  like  Alexis  Didier,  but 
never  received  pay  for  his  revelations.  He  gives  the  fol- 
lowing account  of  the  sensitive  condition  in  which  a  clair- 
voyant finds  himself  : 

"  During  the  physical  manifestations  I  was  usually  in  a 
half-trance,  intensely  sensitive  and  impressible.  The  least 
word  or  jarring  question,  even  when  the  intention  was  com- 
mendable, grated  on  my  nerves  like  a  rasp  of  fire.  No 
words  can  convey  the  least  idea  of  this  condition.  I  can 
onl}"  compare  it  to  that  physical  state  which  would  result  if 
the  nerves  were  all  laid  bare.  It  seemed  that  the  nerves 
of  the  spirit  were  in  like  manner  exposed,  and  the  word, 
or  intonation  of  voice,  which  in  the  normal  state  would 


158  EVER-INCREASIXG   TESTIMONY. 

pass  nnnoticed,  broke  with  the  roar  of  thunder,  and  tore 
and  lacerated  the  quivering  spirit.  I  remember  once  a 
gentleman  called  for  a  private  sitting. 

' '  Together  with  my  father  and  mother  we  sat  for  an 
hour,  and  there  was  not  the  least  movement  of  the  table, 
nor  was  I  sensitive.  The  gentleman  withdrew  his  hands, 
and  in  less  than  a  minute  the  table  was  promptly  raised, 
and  by  the  alphabet  spelled  his  father's  name.  The  effort 
seemed  to  have  been  very  great  and  exhaustive,  and  I  had 
become  almost  unconscious.  The  name  was  scarcely  pro- 
nounced when  the  gentleman  seized  the  side  of  the  table 
and  began  to  rock  it,  saying,  '  See,  I  can  move  it  as  well 
as  an}^  one.'  Had  he  discharged  an  electric  battery  through 
my  brain  the  shock  would  not  have  been  greater  or  the 
pain  more  unendurable.  The  implication  at  ordinary  times 
would  have  passed  with  a  smile,  for  I  had  not  the  least  de- 
sire or  interest  to  convert  any  one,  but  at  that  moment, 
when  every  nerve-fibre  was  tense  and  vibrating,  they  broke 
at  the  rude  touch,  and  I  awoke  with  anger,  and  m}-  speech 
was  hot  with  indignation.  I  could  not  explain  to  him  how 
or  why  he  had  so  offended  me,  for  I  could  not  understand 
myself,  and  after  an  hour  I  was  filled  with  shame  that  I  had 
so  far  forgotten  mj^self. 

"  Mother,  blessed  soul,  came  forward  with  words  of  ex- 
planation, persuasion,  and  extenuation  to  the  gentleman, 
and  afterwards  with  balm  for  m}^  troubled  mind,  yet  it  was 
a  long  time  before  I  recovered  my  former  serenit}',  or  dared 
allow  m3'self  to  fall  into  the  same  unguarded  sensitive  con- 
dition. As  soon  as  I  felt  its  approach  I  would  instinctive - 
13^  start  back  in  undefinable  terror,  fearing  again  the  fiery 
pain. 

"  This,  3'ou  may  sa}^,  was  an  exceedingly  trifling  thing  to 
produce  such  a  result,  and  mediums  should  school  them- 
selves to  bear  opposition,  disapproval,  and  criticism.  I 
speak  advisedly  when  I  sa}",  that  when  the  medium  has 
gained  this  condition,  his  sensitiveness  will  have  become  so 
obtuse  he  will  not  be  a  medium.  You  sa^^,  '  A  little  thing 
for  so  great  a  disturbance ! '  You  forget  that  an  almost 
imperceptible  mote  in  the  eye  causes  unbearable  pain  :  3'et 
the  eye  is  not  to  be  compared  in  its  sensitiveness  with  that 
of  the  brain  in  its  spiritualized  state." 


UNSCIENTIFIC   OBJECTIONS.  159 

Object  as  we  may  to  being  under  surveillance^  the  fact  of 
clairvo3'ance  persists.  It  is  now  daily  demonstrated.  Wrap 
om'selves  as  we  may  in  our  own  individuality,  look  down 
as  we  may  in  the  arrogance  of  our  self-suflicienc}^  upon  sur- 
rounding intelligences,  we  cannot  escape  from  the  great 
fact  of  the  solidarity  of  all  created  things.  Clairvo3^ance 
proves  to  us  that  there  is  no  such  privilege  to  be  had  as  per- 
fect privacy ;  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  absolute  inde- 
pendence for  an}'  human  being.  We  think  we  hold  a  secret 
in  our  breast ;  we  flatter  ourselves  that  there  is  not  another 
individual  intelligence  in  the  whole  world  that  knows,  or  can 
know,  what  we  would  hide.  Vain,  illusive  thought !  Our 
whole  moral  and  ph^^sical  nature  is  transparent  to  higher 
intelligences.  Our  secret  is  known  perhaps  by  others  be- 
fore we  know  it  ourselves. 

A  Roman  Catholic  writer,  who,  as  he  tells  us,  could  nof. 
at  one  time  listen  with  an}-  patience  to  the  mere  mention  of 
our  phenomena,  has  in  the  Dublin  Ueview  some  apt  re- 
marks, of  which,  however,  I  can  only  give  the  pith  in  lan- 
guage much  abridged.  He  remarks  that  a  plausible  lie 
soon  loses  its  hold  on  the  credence  of  men,  and  at  length 
vanishes  utterl}^  and  forever.  But  what  has  been  the  for- 
tune of  these  phenomena  ?  They  were  received  at  first  not 
only  with  disbelief  but  with  derision  ;  they  were  rejected  as 
untrue,  not  because  not  proven,  but  because  incapable  of 
proof,  because  they  were  impossible  —  and,  indeed,  impos- 
sible they  are  to  mere  human  power  and  skill.  The  char- 
acteristic of  the  times  is  certainlj^  not  one  of  credulity.  It 
was  predicted  that  before  the  generation  that  witnessed  the 
rise  of  these  phenomena  had  died  out,  the}^  would  have 
disappeared  and  been  forgotten.  Well,  3'ears  have  rolled 
on,  and  men  who  once  impatiently  repudiated  the  phe- 
nomena, having  been  induced  to  examine  into  what  was 
making  such  a  noise  in  the  world,  have  been  led,  from  ma- 
ture, and  for  a  time  prejudiced  examination,  to  conviction. 


160  EVER-INCREASING  TESTIMONY. 

In  this  way  have  been  brought  round  several  of  the  ablest 
and  most  learned  men  in  Europe,  ]Dh3'sicians,  philosophers, 
theologians,  Catholic,  Protestant,  ai^l  free-thiuking. 

Authorit}'  does  not  prove  an  opirdon;  but  here  there  is 
a  question  of  facts  and  of  the  testimony  of  the  senses,  — 
of  facts  and  testimonies  repeated  over  and  over  again,  be- 
yond the  possibilit}'  of  calculation,  in  the  greater  part  of 
Europe  and  America,  not  to  speak  of  Australia,  and  re- 
corded 3'ear  after  3'ear  down  to  the  present  daj^  It  is 
quite  impossible  that  about  such  facts  such  a  cloud  of  such 
witnesses  should  be  all  deceived. 

The  charge  that  Spiritualism  is  a  superstition  recoils  on 
its  utterers.  It  is  the  remed}^  for  all  superstitions.  Can 
beliefs  founded  on  absolute  and  demonstrable  facts  prove 
less  potent  in  influencing  life  and  character  than  dogmas 
and  conjectures? 

"  Spiritualism,"  says  Alfred  R.  Wallace,  "is  an  experi- 
mental science,  and  affords  the  onl}^  foundation  for  a  true 
philosophj'  and  a  pure  religion.  _  It  abolishes  the  terms 
'  supernatural'  and  '  miracle'  by  an  extension  of  the  sphere 
of  law  and  the  realm  of  nature ;  and  in  doing  so  it  takes 
up  and  explains  whatever  is  true  in  the  superstitions  and 
so-called  miracles  of  all  ages.  A  science  of  human  nature, 
which  teaches  that  happiness  in  a  future  life  can  be  secured 
b}'  cultivating  and  developing  to  the  utmost  the  higher  fac- 
ulties of  our  intellectual  and  moral  nature,  and  b}^  no  other 
method,  is  and  must  be  the  natural  enemy  of  all  super- 
stitions." 

"  I  have  left  off  believing  in  deaths  so  called,"  writes 
Philip  Pearsall  Carpenter,  the  naturalist,  (brother  of  the 
Dr.  W.  B.  Carpenter  who  has  fought  so  against  our  facts) 
and  goes  on  to  say : 

"The  spiritual  world  appears  to  me  close  and  near. 
Judghig  from  all  accounts,  there  are  only  a  few  hours,  or 
days  at  most,  before  the  spirit  wakes  again.     I  believe  my 


UNSCIENTIFIC   OBJECTIONS.  161 

deprivation  of  home  sympathies  has  made  me  live  more  in 
the  spiritual  world,  from  which  I  feel  separated  only  by  a 
veil  of  flesh.  I  feel  as  though  it  would  never  surprise  me 
to  find  that  I  had  died  and  was  there :  it  often  seems  more 
natural  than  the  present  state.  In  old  times,  when  I  be- 
lieved in  an  external  heaven,  and  thought  we  left  off  being 
men  and  became  some  queer  kind  of  undefined  angels,  it 
was  not  so.  Now  I  feel  it  to  be  a  vvaldng  of  the  same 
humanity  without  the  hindrances  of  flesh.  ...  In  my 
intercourse  with  the  Spiritualists  it  is  evident  to  me  that 
they  do  not  mourn  for  death  like  orthodox  Christians, 
whose  heaven  is  more  ideal  than  real.  The}^  really  do  be- 
lieve that  their  friends  are  living  happily,  and  have  inter- 
course with  them.  About  this  medium  work  I  care  very 
little :  its  principal  use  is  to  teach  the  reality  of  things 
unseen ;  and  it  must  be  a  xery  imperfect  thing  at  best, 
because  it  is  only  the  lowest  elements  of  their  nature  that 
can  communicate  with  the  highest  of  ours.  But  for  us  all 
to  look  on  the  next  state  as  an  absolute  continuation  of 
this,  only  in  a  far  purer  and  in  every  way  better  sphere,  is 
good  for  us  all,  and  especially  for  those  who  have  treasures 
in  heaven." 

The  cause  of  the  unbelief  in  what  is  taught  in  sj'stems 
of  theolog}^  sectarian  creeds,  and  historical  assertions,  on 
the  subject  of  immortality,  is  that  the  advanced  intellect 
of  the  age  lacks  a  scientific  basis  for  a  full,  energizing  con- 
viction as  to  spiritual  realities.  It  is  idle  to  say  that  men 
ought  to  infer  from  their  own  natures  that  they  have  souls. 
They  still  lend  too  ready  an  ear  on  this  point  to  the  confi- 
dent contradictions  of  an  arrogant  Materialism,  sporting 
the  credentials  of  science. 

But  here  are  the  facts  of  Spiritualism,  forcing  upon 
those  who  will  fairly  investigate  them,  the  great  conviction 
that  spiritual  agency  can  be  objectively  proved.  What 
fo%  is  it,  then,  in  the  friends  of  religion  to  reject  the  aid 
presented,  because  there  may  be  much  that  still  seems  per- 
plexing, incongruous,  and  even  offensive  in  the  develop- 
ments ? 

11 


132  IS  SPIRITUAL  SCIENCE 


CHAPTER  V 

IS    SPIKITUAL   SCIENCE   HOSTILE   TO   EELIGION  ? 

In  a  previous  chapter  I  referred  to  sorae  fanciful  theories 
as  to  the  origin  of  the  belief  in  imraortalitj'  among  the 
primitive  races  of  men.  I  have  contended  that  the  belief 
must  have  sprung  as  a  coroUar}^  from  a  knowledge  of  act- 
ual phenomena,  such  as  millions  have  had  proved  to  them 
in  our  own  day.  I  am  glad  to  learn  from  one  of  the  pam- 
phlets of  mj  esteemed  friend,  Thomas  Shorter,  of  London, 
that  mj'  convictions  on  this  point  are  supported  by  the  phil- 
osophical inferences  of  so  high  an  authority  as  the  late 
John  Stuart  Mill,  who  wisely  says : 

"The  argument  from  tradition,  or  the  general  belief  of 
the  human  race,  if  we  accept  it  as  a  guide  to  our  own 
belief,  must  be  accepted  entire ;  if  so,  we  are  bound  to 
believe  that  the  souls  of  human  beings  not  only  survive 
after  death,  but  show  themselves  as  ghosts  to  the  living ; 
for  we  find  no  people  who  have  had  the  one  belief  without 
the  other.  Indeed,  it  is  probable  that  the  former  belief 
originated  in  the  latter,  and  that  primitive  men  would  never 
have  supposed  that  the  soul  did  not  die  with  the  bod}^,  if 
they  had  not  fancied  that  it  visited  them  after  death." 

Here  we  have  the  subtlest  skeptical  philosophy  corrobo- 
rating one  of  our  most  important  positions,  namelj^,  that 
the  primitive  tribes  drew  their  belief  in  immortalit}-,  not 
from  seeing  their  faces  in  the  water,  or  their  shadows 
against  the  sunlight,  as  Mr.  Spencer  supposes,  but  from 
seeing  actual,  objective,  recognizable  apparitions  of  de- 
ceased persons. 

The  ground-thought  of  the  system  which  I.  H.  Fichte 


HOSTILE  TO   RELIGION?  163 

drew  from  his  knowledge  of  our  phenomena  is,  according 
to  Professor  Franz  Hoffman,  of  Wurtzburg,  a  God-given, 
spiritually -real  individuolism.  Fichte  accepts  the  facts  of 
modern  Spirituahsm,  and  refutes  the  materialism,  the  pan- 
theism, and  the  merely  realistic  individualism  of  the  day. 
From  the  standpoint  of  psycho-i)h3-sical  science,  he  argues 
in  favor  of  the  objective  nature  of  the  soul  itself.  It  has 
a  certain  luhere  in  space,  but  is  all-present  in  every  part 
of  its  space-existence.  Its  bod}'  is  the  reai,  its  conscious- 
ness the  ideal  expression  of  its  individuahty.  From  its 
inner,  continuing,  invisible  body,  the  separable  exterior 
body  must  be  distinguished. 

The  inner  body  is  the  soul  itself  considered  in  its  sense- 
relations  only.  The  outer  body  is  the  chemical  material 
body,  appropriated  and  then  dissolved,  and,  in  death,  alto- 
gether separable  from  the  imperishable  soul.  The  whole 
body  is  the  organ  of  the  soul,  the  instrument  of  its  activity, 
and  consequently  a  sj^stem  of  organs ;  and  the  soul,  con- 
sidered still  in  its  sense-relations  only,  is  unconscious- 
rational,  body -fashioning  force.  Thus  the  spirit-form  is 
fair  or  otherwise,  according  to  the  character  of  the  indi- 
vidual. To  higher  spirits  the  hj^pocrite  unmasks  himself 
by  his  very  aspect.  '^  There  is  no  shuffling  —  there  the 
action  lies  in  its  true  light."     Fichte  says  of  om-  facts  : 

"Through  their  inner  analog}^,  one  with  another,  they 
become  credible,  and  through  their  frequent  recurrence 
among  different  peoples  of  different  grades  of  culture  in 
ancient  and  modern  times,  are  found  to  cohere  so  remark- 
ably that  neither  the  theory  of  an  accidental  reception  of 
ever-returning  delusions,  nor  that  of  a  superstition  trans- 
mitted from  generation  to  generation,  can  suffice  as  an 
explanation.  However  offensive,  therefore,  to  the  ruling 
notions  of  the  day,  they  must  be  admitted  to  the  domain 
of  well-accepted  psychical  facts." 

"No  faith,"  saj^s  Leibnitz,  "can  be  real  or  intelligible 
unless  its  foundations  are  detected  in  the  human  reason. 


164  IS   SPIRITUAL  SCIENCE 

Beligion,  dissevered  from  the  reason  of  man,  can  have  no 
hold  or  standing-place."  It  is  the  glory  of  Spiritualism 
that  its  appeal  is  to  the  reason  through  science ;  that  it 
gives  us  the  elements  of  a  religion,  old  as  the  world,  and 
at  once  rational,  scientific,  and  emotional.  But  this  reli- 
gion the  individual  must  himself  deduce  from  our  facts, 
and  thus  make  it  truly  his  own,  and  not  a  graft  from  some 
other  man's  tree  of  life.  This  being  the  case,  there  must 
be  diversity  of  religious  insight. 

"An^^thing  becomes  religious  to  us,"  saj^s  Mrs.  Louisa 
Andrews,  "  which  tends,  directly  or  indirectly-,  to  lift  the 
mind  above  the  lower  and  narrower  spheres  of  thought 
into  a  contemplation  of  realities  that  are  eternal,  and  by 
this  uplifting  to  inspire  in  the  heart  that  '  worship  of  some- 
thing afar  from  the  sphere  of  our  sorrow,'  which  is  the  soul 
of  all  true  religion,  irrespective  of  creeds.  Spirituahsm 
msij  do  this  or  it  may  not.  '  The  fool  sees  not  the  same 
tree  that  the  wise  man  sees  ; '  nor  do  all  the  wise  necessa- 
rily see  the  same.     'We  receive  but  what  we  give.' " 

The  same  writer  tells  us  that  Spiritualists  differ,  one 
from  another,  in  their  views  in  regard  to  right  living  and 
right  thinking,  as  widely  as  it  is  possible  for  men  to  do ; 
some  insisting  on  a  purely  moral  life,  and  others  ready  to 
sweep  awaj'-  all  recognized  boundary  lines  between  right  and 
wrong  that  may  interfere  with  an  indulgence  of  their  own 
unchallenged  desires.  There  are  many  of  the  latter  class 
who  claim  to  be  Spiritualists ;  and  where  are  we  to  draw 
the  line  of  exclusion?  The  influence  exerted  by  Spirit- 
ualism having  its  source  in  the  phenomena,' we  must  not 
leave  these  behind  as  things  outgrown,  but  continue  to 
study  them,  and  draw  from  them  —  confirming  as  they  do 
belief  in  spiritual,  immortal  hfe  —  such  truths  as  may  make 
us  wise  unto  eternity. 

Because  many  persons  do  not  draw  these  precious  infer- 
ences, it  does  not  follow  that  the  repeated  demonstration 


HOSTILE   TO   RELIGION?  165 

of  spirit  power  ought  not  to  elevate  us  by  filling  us  with 
the  sense  of  imniortalit3\  Even  the  manifestations  of  an 
evil  spirit  may  have  their  impressive  lesson  ;  though  unless 
we  can  do  him  good,  the  less  we  have  of  his  societ}^  the 
better.  "These  proofs  of  spirit  existence  and  energ}^," 
says  Mrs.  Andrews,  "with  all  the  mysteries  involved  in 
the  exercise  of  unknown  forces  as  they  act  upon  the  things 
we  call  material,  must,  rightl}^  used,  be  of  incalculable 
value." 

Spiritualism  is  not,  as  the  ignorant  have  called  it,  "a 
form  of  religion."  To  the  pure  in  heart  it  is  religion  itself. 
Theodore  Parker,  though  lack  of  opportunities  of  investi- 
gation left  him  without  personal  proof  of  our  facts,  intui- 
tively recognized  their  vast  significance  ;  for  in  his  "  Notes 
for  Sermons,"  he  sa3^s  :  "  In  1856  it  seems  more  likel^^  that 
Spiritualism  would  become  the  religion  of  America  than  in 
156  that  Christianity  would  become  tlie  religion  of  the 
Eoman  empire,  or  in  756  that  Mohammedanism  would  be 
that  of  the  x\rabian  populations  :  (1)  It  has  more  evidence 
for  its  wonders  than  any  historic  form  of  religion  hitherto. 
(2)  It  is  thoroughlj^  democratic,  with  no  hierarch}'' ;  but 
Inspiration  is  open  to  all.  (3)  It  is  no  fixed  fact  —  has  no 
punctum  stems  —  but  is  a,  punctum  Jluens.  (4)  It  admits 
all  the  truths  of  rehgion  and  morality  in  all  the  world- 
s-ects." 

Thus  Spiritualism  is  eclectic.  It  gives  us  a  basis  of 
demonstrable  truth  for  our  religion.  It  is  remarked  b}^ 
Henry  Thomas  Buckle  that  those  v^ho  would  found  their 
belief  in  immortalit}^  on  their  religion,  instead  of  founding 
their  religion  on  their  belief  in  immortalitj^,  are  making  a 
great  mistake.  "They  imperil,"  he  sa3's,  "their  own 
cause.  They  make  the  fundamental  depend  upon  the  cas- 
ual ;  they  support  what  is  i^ermancnt  b}^  what  is  ephem- 
eral ;  and  with  their  books,  their  dogmas,  their  traditions, 
their  rituals,  their  records,  and  their  other  perishable  con- 


166  IS   SPIRITUAL   SCIENCE 

trivances,  thej^  seek  to  prove  what  was  known  to  the  world 
before  these  existed,  and  what,  if  these  were  to  die  away, 
would  still  be  known,  and  would  remain  the  common  heri- 
tage of  the  human  species,  and  the  consolation  of  mj'^riads 
yet  unborn.'* 

Again  he  ssijs  :  "  It  is  to  that  sense  of  immortality  with 
which  the  affections  inspire  us,  that  I  would  appeal  for  the 
best  proof  of  the  realit}^  of  a  future  life.  So  surel}^  as  we 
lose  what  we  love,  so  surely  does  hope  mingle  with  grief." 

I  grant  that  the  testimony  of  the  affections  is  supple- 
mentary and  important ;  but  it  is  not  the  original  factor 
which  made  the  belief  in  immortality  so  prevalent  even 
among  uncivilized  tribes.  That  belief,  as  I  have  shown, 
had  actual  phenomena  for  its  basis. 

And  what  is  religion  ?  For  no  word  have  more  defini- 
tions been  invented.  I  will  give  another,  acknowledging 
that  it  is  a  limited  one  :  Eeligion  is  the  sentiment  of  rev- 
erence or  of  appeal,  growing  out  of  a  sense  of  the  possi- 
bility that  there  may  be  in  the  universe  a  Power  or  powers 
unseen,  able  to  take  cognizance  of  our  thoughts  and  our 
needs,  and  to  help  us  spiritually  or  ph3'sicall3^ 

The  religious  sentiment  is  then  genuine,  legitimate,  and 
almost  universal.  It  will  detract  nothing  from  its  authorit}' 
for  some  Darwinian  to  tell  us  of  its  pedigree,  to  inform  us 
that,  like  many  traits  of  character,  it  is  mostly  the  result 
of  heredity ;  of  the  gradual  complexit}^  of  the  brain-cells  ; 
that  it  is  a  mere  evolution  from  certain  experiences,  fears, 
hopes,  and  imaginations,  all  of  which  can  be  traced  through 
merely  material  developments,  like  the  ph3'sical  faculties 
of  man  and  beast,  till  by  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  and  a 
progress  over  long  tracts  of  time,  we  have  arrived  at  our 
present  state.  Grant  that  this  is  all  so,  it  does  not  explain 
how  the  original  cell  or  germ  should  have  been  endowed 
with  these  amazing  potentialities,  nor  does  it  detract  from 
the  legitimacy  and  the  efficacy  of  the  religious  sentiment. 


HOSTILE   TO   RELIGION?  167 

Truly  does  Coleridge  say:  "A  religion  —  i.e.,  a  true 
religion  —  must  consist  of  ideas  and  facts  both  ;  not  of  ideas 
alone  without  facts,  for  then  it  would  be  mere  philosophy  ; 
nor  of  facts  alone  without  ideas,  of  which  those  facts  are 
the  symbols,  or  out  of  which  they  arise,  or  upon  which  they 
are  grounded,  for  then  it  would  be  mere  history." 

Spuitualism  fulfils  these  requirements.  Its  facts,  rightly 
construed,  hold  out  the  loftiest  inducements  to  a  noble, 
beneficent  life.  It  proclaims  to  us  that  we  think  and  do  in 
the  sight  of  a  host  of  witnesses  ;  it  recognizes  the  suprem- 
ac3^  of  law,  physical,  moral,  and  spiritual ;  it  looks  for  no 
relief  from  the  penalties  of  sin  through  the  mystical  sufl'er- 
ings  of  another ;  it  teaches  no  vicarious  advantage.  It 
illustrates  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  but  teaches  that  the  power 
of  finite  spirits  is  hmited,  and  that  the  Divine  Benignity  is 
exercised  in  harmony  with  laws  which  it  is  for  us  to  study 
and  obey.  It  proves  that  as  we  sow  we  reap,  and  that  man 
is  preparing  his  future  condition  while  here,  by  his  ruhng 
thoughts,  desires,  and  acts,  and  is  thus  his  own  punisher, 
his  own  rewarder. 

Thus  the  religion  prompted  by  the  facts  of  Spiritualism 
cannot  differ  largely  in  any  essential  point  from  that  of 
primitive  Christianity.  This  did  not  spring  from  the  de- 
cisions of  councils,  from  the  interpretations  of  students, 
from  the  dictation  of  majorities,  from  any  dogma  relative 
to  vicarious  atonement,  the  Trinity,  or  the  nature  of  sal- 
vation. It  was  born  of  the  knowledge  that  the  Jesus  whom 
they  had  known  and  conversed  with  had  reappeared  to 
certain  disciples  and  friends  after  his  crucifixion,  and  thus 
given  them  the  assurance  and  the  palpable  proof  of  his  own 
immortality,  and  indirectly  of  theirs.  Na}",  in  his  visible 
and  tangible  presentation  of  himself  he  had  endeavored  to 
dissipate  the  fears  they  associated  with  disembodied  spuits, 
and  had  partaken  of  food  to  show  that  he  was  no  mere 
shadow  of  his  former  self,  but  had  that  power  over  matter 


168  IS  SPIRITUAL   SCIENCE 

that  he  could  re-compose  a  simulacrum  of  his  earth-form, 
or  reduce  it  to  invisibilit}'  b_y  a  simple  act  of  volition. 

This  fact  of  Christ's  reappearance  was  the  cardinal  doc- 
trine of  the  early  Christians,  their  common  faith  and  hope. 
"  Thej^  had,"  saj^s  Thomas  Shorter,  "an  indubitable  as- 
surance that  as  He  lived  they  should  live  also.  This  in- 
spired them  with  enthusiasm,  and  a  courage  to  brave  torture 
and  death.  It  was  the  apparition  of  Christ  that  converted 
Saul  the  poor  persecutor  into  Paul  the  apostle,  and  trans- 
formed the  heresy-  of  an  obscure  provincial  sect  into  a  uni- 
versal faith." 

We  must  believe  in  an  absolute,  immutable  principle  of 
goodness,  and  in  a  Divine  Intelligence,  from  which  all 
axiomatic,  a  priori  truth  must  flow  down  to  finite  intelli- 
gences, if  we  would  unite  religion  with  morality  ;  for  if  we 
are  at  the  mercy  of  some  blind  chance,  under  which  what 
is  right  to-day  may  be  wrong  to-morrow,  the  cosmos  is  not 
likely  to  be  a  pleasant  abiding-place  for  an  eternity  to  truth- 
loving,  justice-loving  souls.  An  enlightened  Spiritualism 
conducts  the  mind,  sooner  or  later,  to  an  enlightened  The- 
ism—  liberal  as  the  sun  and  all-embracing  as  the  universe. 
But  it  is  not  dogmatic,  since  its  inferences  are  those  of  the 
scientific  mind  itself. 

The  sphere  of  science,  as  science  herself  declares,  is  the 
sphere  of  demonstrable  phenomena.  Beyond  that  she  does 
not  assume  to  penetrate.  Our  Sadducean  friends,  however, 
as  well  as  philosophers  lilve  Wundt,  do  not  hesitate  to  enter 
this  forbidden  Beyond  very  confidently,  as  if  they  were 
qualified  to  teach  us  as  to  the  existence  or  non-existence 
of  a  First  Cause.  As  far  as  they  do  this  they  are  indulging 
in  mere  speculation.  Spiritualism  differs  from  all  specula- 
tive systems  in  presenting  a  body  of  well-attested  phenom- 
ena, and  a  thoroughly  scientific  sj^nthesis  for  its  basis, 
since  it  is  from  phenomena  only,  supplemented  by  axioms 
and  the  postulates  of  reason,  that  all  science  is  derivable. 


HOSTILE  TO   RELIGION?  169 

Spiritualism,  then,  in  its  primitive  relations,  is  the  science 
of  pneumatology.  What  "form  of  religion"  may  proceed 
from  it  depends  on  the  character,  mental,  moral,  and  emo- 
tional, of  the  recipient.  He  may  be,  in  his  own  estima- 
tion, an  atheist;  for,  as  Bishop  Butler  has  remarked, 
' '  That  we  are  to  live  hereafter  is  just  as  reconcilable  with 
the  scheme  of  atheism,  and  as  well  to  be  accounted  for  by 
it,  as  that  we  are  now  alive  is  ;  and  therefore  nothing  can  be 
more  absurd  than  to  argue  from  that  scheme  that  there  can 
be  no  future  state."  I  have  my  doubts,  however,  whether 
atheism  can  ever  thrive  in  the  atmosphere  of  Spiritualism. 
As  pneumatology  is  tending  to  be  a  science,  Sadduceeism 
at  least  is  doomed,  and  its  expulsion  from  minds  scien- 
tifically trained  is  merely  a  question  of  time. 

The  inquiry,  then,  is  not  whether  Spiritualism  may  be 
favorable  to  religion,  but  whether  it  is  true.  And  yet  it  has 
been  the  very  life-blood  of  all  the  world's  serious  religions  ; 
and  if  there  is  to  be  a  religion  of  the  future,  the  basis  must 
be  a  scientific  belief  in  the  immortality  of  man.  If  we  can 
once  realize  what  Spirituahsm  makes  known  to  us,  that  a 
finite  spirit  can  manifest  its  existence  by  exercising  a  pre- 
terhuman power  over  matter  in  many  intelligent  ways,  it 
makes  scientifically  possible  the  existence  of  an  Infinite 
Spirit,  conscious,  intelligent,  and  omnipotent,  able  to  create 
the  very  principle  of  matter,  to  will  into  existence  a  uni- 
verse, and  to  sustain  it  by  his  immutable  volition.  I  admit 
that  this  faith  must  be  largely  and  properly  a  postulate  of 
the  reason ;  but  Spiritualism,  through  its  marvellous  phe- 
nomena, vouches  for  it  with  the  force  of  all  its  analogies. 
It  is  a  familiar  fact  that  there  are  Spiritualists  who,  in  re- 
gard to  the  question  of  a  supreme  Spiritual  Orderer,  are 
agnostic,  pantheistic,  or  atheistic.  But  that  Spiritualism 
lends  new  authority  to  the  theistic  hypothesis,  by  proving 
grand  spiritual  jDossibilities,  transcending  all  that  human 
effort  could  accomplish  or  even  comprehend,  there  can  be 


170  IS   SPIRITUAL  SCIENCE 

no  reasonable  doubt.  Establish  the  fact  of  this  spiritual 
power  over  matter  ;  —  from  what  a  finite  spirit  can  do,  rise 
to  an  estimate  of  what  an  infinite  spirit  might  do  —  and  the 
hypothesis  of  a  Supreme  Intelligence,  filling  the  earth  with 
the  exuberance  of  his  life,  and  power,  and  love,  becomes 
something  more  than  a  speculation. 

To  say  that  religion  cannot  have  science  —  i.  e.,  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  phenomena  of  nature,  including  the  soul  of  man 
—  for  its  basis,  is  as  absurd  as  it  would  be  to  say  that 
mathematics  do  not  require  axioms  for  their  foundation. 
Religion  may  transcend  phenomena  and  rise  into  a  region 
which  mortal  science  may  not  enter ;  indeed  it  must  do  so, 
the  more  it  ascends  to  the  height  of  its  great  argument,  the 
more  it  expands  and  draws  nearer  to  the  Infinite ;  but  if 
it  have  no  other  basis  than  the  emotions,  and  reject  all  that 
intuition,  science,  and  reason  may  offer  for  its  justification, 
it  may  not  soar  to  that  ' '  purer  ether,  that  diviner  air," 
where  faith  is  merged  in  knowledge. 

Religion  has  its  root  in  the  beUef  or  intuitive  feehng  that 
within  us  or  external  to  us  is  an  intelligent,  supersensual 
power  that  can  affect  us  for  good.  According  to  Quatre- 
fages,  religion  is  "a  belief  in  beings  superior  to  man,  and 
capable  of  exercising  good  or  evil  influences  upon  his  des- 
tiny ;  and  the  conviction  that  the  existence  of  man  is  not 
limited  to  the  present  hfe,  but  that  there  remains  for  him  a 
future  beyond  the  grave." 

Any  scientific  confirmation  of  such  a  belief  must  then  be 
a  new  force  added  to  it.  If  we  can  justify  it  by  an  appeal 
to  actual  phenomena,  it  is  a  gain  which  no  sane  man,  not 
desiring  annihilation,  would  forego.  This  is  what  Spiritu- 
alism enables  us  to  do  ;  and  therefore,  since  science  "  takes 
cognizance  of  phenomena,  and  endeavors  to  discover  their 
laws,"  and  consists  in  "  an  infallible  and  unchanging  knowl- 
edge of  phenomena,"  Spiritualism  is  a  science,  though  as 
yet  in  many  respects  rudimental. 


HOSTILE  TO   RELIGION?  171 

A  critic  objecting  to  the  deduction  of  religion  from 
Spiritualism,  remarks,  "  How  absurd,  then,  to  demand  that 
rehgion  shall  have  a  scientific  basis  !  "  He  goes  on  to  tell 
us  of  the  "  shifting  sands  "  of  science,  as  if  it  were  some- 
thing here  to-da}^  and  gone  to-morrow.  Plainly  he  con- 
founds h3'pothesis  with  science.  His  argument  rests  on  a 
palpable  misconception.  "Instead  then  of  attempting," 
he  says,  "to  place  religion  upon  a  basis  consisting  of  the 
shifting  sands  of  science,  would  it  not  be  more  logical  to 
attempt  to  find  for  it  a  religious  basis  ?  "  But  is  not  that 
sentence  a  little  tautological  ?  Is  is  not  equivalent  to  tell- 
ing us  to  base  religion  on  religion  ?  Where  the  ' '  logic  " 
comes  in  it  is  difficult  to  discover. 

In  a  recent  number  of  an  American  journal  devoted  to 
Spiritualism  I  find  the  following  remarks  from  a  corres- 
pondent : 

"  Religion  will  eventually  become  science  ;  but  in  doing 
so  it  will  cease  to  be  rehgion.  Alchem}^  lost  its  identity  in 
chemistry  ;  astrology  gave  way  to  astronomy  ;  and  religion, 
like  both  alchemy  and  astrology,  being  a  system  which  is 
composed  mainl}^  of  supposed  facts  and  their  imaginary 
relations,  must  pass  away  and  be  forgotten  just  as  fast  as 
the  real  facts  are  discovered  and  their  true  relations  under- 
stood." 

As  there  are  innumerable  diff'ering  definitions  of  the  word 
religion,  and  as  the  writer  of  the  above  remarks  has  made 
a  new  definition,  it  would  seem  somewhat  idle  to  criticise 
his  assumption  that  religion  must  fade  out  as  science  ad- 
vances. If,  as  he  sa3"s,  religion  is  merel}^  "  a  system  com- 
posed mainly  of  supposed  facts  and  their  imaginarj^  rela- 
tions," then  no  one  will  be  likely  to  go  into  mourning  at 
seeing  religion  thrust  out.  But  many  thoughtful  persons 
have  a  very  different  estimate  of  religion  from  this.  To 
them  it  is  the  very  culmination  of  all  truth  and  all  knowl- 
edge ;  it  is  science  "  flushed  with  emotion." 

When  Kepler,  as  one  of  his  grand  discoveries  flashed 


172  IS  SPIRITUAL  SCIENCE 

upon  Ms  mind,  knelt  in  devout  thanksgiving  and  awe  at 
the  realization  that  he  was  "  re-thinking  the  thoughts  of 
God,"  I  hardly  think  he  would  have  been  in  a  mood  to  ad- 
mit that  science  is,  or  can  ever  be,  the  death  of  religion.  It 
all  depends  upon  what  notions  one  has  of  rehgion,  and  what 
faculties  he  has  for  feeling  it. 

And  so,  when  this  same  writer  says,  "  Spiritualism  can 
never  develop  a  religion  in  any  sense,"  the  force  of  the 
proposition  all  depends  upon  what  sort  of  thing  one's  Spir- 
ituahsm  is.  One  man's  spiritual  proclivities  and  affinities 
ma}^  lead  him  into  very  bad  company  and  into  a  very  low 
sphere  of  thought ;  while  another's  may  surround  him  with 
all  uplifting  influences. 

To  saj  that  Spiritualism  can  never  "develop  a  religion 
in  any  sense,"  is  about  equivalent  to  saying  that  human 
and  angelic  thought  can  never  develop  a  religion  in  any 
sense.  There  is  no  scientific  force  in  the  affirmation  ;  it 
is  pure  dogmatism,  entitled  to  not  the  least  scientific  re- 
spect. 

One  mind  may  see  in  certain  facts  very  diff'erent  ' '  rela- 
tions" from  those  that  are  suggested  to  another  mind. 
The  thought  that  forced  a  Kepler  down  on  his  knees  might 
be  wholly  barren  and  unsuggestive  to  a  Gradgrind  or  a 
Haeckel.  In  Spiritualism  we  find  only  what  we  bring  the 
vision  and  the  faculty  for  finding.  To  those  who  really 
know  its  phenomena,  it  is  as  much  a  science  even  now  as 
astronomy  or  chemistry.  So  far  is  it  from  being  true  that 
science  has  a  tendency  to  Idll  out  religion,  the  real  truth  is, 
as  Newton,  Kepler,  Copernicus,  and  Frankhn  found  it,  re- 
ligion becomes  all  the  more  religion  as  the  mind  advances 
in  positive  science. 

Are  we  to  suppose  that  as  physiology,  anthropology,  the 
laws  of  parentage,  heredity,  and  embryology,  are  devel- 
oped, the  natural  affections  of  the  human  race  must  die  out? 
Yet  such  a  proposition  would  be  quite  as  philosophical  as 


HOSTILE   TO   RELIGION?  173 

the  notion  that  as  religion  grows  more  scientific  it  must 
dwindle  and  die. 

Religion,  pure  and  undefiled,  is  not  the  child  of  ignorance 
and  superstition  ;  the  more  we  know  and  feel,  the  more  truly 
and  purely  religious  must  we  become.  On  from  the  time 
of  Copernicus  science  has  been  revealing  to  us  new  mar- 
vels, and  widening  our  conceptions  of  that  inscrutable 
Power  that  lives  in  all  life.  Can  the  growth  of  a  scientific 
Spiritualism  lead,  any  more  than  the  growth  of  the  sister 
sciences,  to  a  less  reverent  and  adoring  sense  of  that  Su- 
preme Mind,  whose  thoughts  it  is  our  discipline  here,  like 
Kepler's,  to  "  re-think," — an  occupation  which  an  eternity 
cannot  exhaust? 

Let  no  oue  fear  that  as  man  advances  in  knowledge  of 
the  facts  of  universal  nature  he  will  grow  less  religious, 
less  loving,  less  reverent,  or  less  aspiring.  All  history  and 
all  human  biography  prove  the  contrar}'.  It  is  the  shallow 
draught  that  intoxicates  the  brain  ;  '^  but  drinking  largely 
sobers  us  again."  It  is  the  half-way,  the  second-hand  phi- 
losophers — the  men  partiall}'  informed,  confounding  science 
in  the  state  of  h^^pothesis  with  science  in  the  state  of  fact 
—  who  find  science  and  religion  at  variance,  and  imagine 
that  the  latter  will  be  compelled  to  yield  the  right  of  wsiy 
to  the  former. 

All  religions  have  had  some  form  of  Spiritualism  for 
their  basis-  Aptlj'  does  Mr.  Stainton  Moses  remark  :  "  As 
a  factor  in  the  religious  thought  of  the  age,  as  a  regener- 
ating force  operating  most  strongly  within  the  pale  of  re- 
ligious sj'stems  that  sadl^^  need  purifying,  I  believe  it  (Spir- 
itualism) to  be  imperishable  in  its  effects."  To  ignore  the 
religious  significance  of  Spiritualism  —  to  fail  to  recognize 
it  as  "•  God's  gift  to  a  Sadducean  generation"^ — is  to  be 
content  with  the  husk  and  reject  the  life-giving  grain.  All 
religions  still  owe  to  it  —  in  its  past  forms  if  not  in  its 
present  —  all  they  have  in  them  of  vitality. 


174  IS   SPIRITUAL   SCIENCE 

The  abstract,  attenuated  Spiritualism,  for  which  Des- 
cartes, amoDg  the  more  modern  philosophers,  is  so  largeh' 
responsible,  still  dominates  in  philosophy,  in  religion,  and 
in  the  speculations  of  leading  physicists.  Nearl}'  all  the 
attacks  on  Spiritualism  from  phj'sicists  like  T^'udall,  or 
amateur  philosophers  like  Mr.  John  Fiske  or  Mr.  Frederic 
Han'ison,  are  grounded  on  the  conception  which  holds  the 
Cartesian  notion  in  regard  to  the  soul  as  the  onl}^  scientific 
one,  siuce  from  that  to  a  psjxhic  nonentity  the  step  is  easj'. 
These  men  consider  the  soul,  not  as  inhering  in  a  substra- 
tum, to  which  death  is  not  a  sting  and  the  grave  is  not  a 
victory,  — but  as  something  having  not  so  much  substantial 
existence  as  the  reflection  of  a  form  in  a  mirror.  Thought, 
for  them,  does  not  inhere  in  a  supra-ph3'sical  substance, 
but  in  a  certain  pulpy,  cerebral  matter,  going  off  in  a  flux 
of  atoms,  and  disorganized  forever  by  death.  Hence 
thought,  consciousness,  emotion,  haviug  no  other  instru- 
ment or  basis,  vanish  like  a  reflected  image  when  the  mir- 
ror is  covered  or  shivered.  To  such  thinkers,  therefore, 
with  their  limited  or  partial  science,  the  immortality  of  the 
soul  is  an  absurdity,  since  to  them  the  individual  life  and 
experience  are  the  exclusive  property-  of  that  compound 
of  charcoal,  hme,  water,  ox^-gen,  nitrogen,  and  hydrogen, 
which  goes  to  make  up  the  visible  body.  Dissolve  and 
dissipate  these  by  death,  and  the  phenomenon,  onan,  has 
an  end,  bod}'  and  soul. 

No  thought  is  here  given  to  the  consideration  that  all 
these  substances  and  gases  ma}'  exist  in,  or  are  resolvable 
into,  invisible  states,  in  which  their  powers  and  uses  may 
be  greatly  augmented  for  spiritual  appropriation,  if  neces- 
sary.    The  following  remarks  are  by  I.  H.  Fichte : 

'•  Certainly  this  is  a  serious  revelation  at  a  time  when  an 
earnest  belief  in  a  future  for  man  has  been  so  widely  im- 
paired  or   dismissed.     Thus   should   modern   Spiritualism 


HOSTILE   TO   RELIGION?  175 

become  a  monitor  and  a  stimulator  for  us  to  recover  a  firm 
and  abiding  assurance  of  our  immortality. 

^'The  causes  that  have  turned  the  so-called  educated 
class  away  from  this  belief  in  a  spiritual  organism  are 
far  from  being  irrefutable  arguments  against  its  scientific 
possibility :  they  are  wholly  untenable  as  such.  The 
grounds  for  an  enlarged  and  improved  psychology  lie  in 
modern  Spiritualism,  since  its  physical  phenomena  are,  in 
remarkable  particulars,  analogous  to  those  known  long  ago. 
The  old  has  been  unexpectedly  confirmed  by  the  new,  and 
vice  versa. 

''The  power  of  the  departed  to  materialize  is  entirely 
antagonistic  to  all  conceptions  of  a  pure  abstract  spiritual- 
ity as  the  onl}^  ground  of  heiiig  in  a  future  state.  This 
new  science  of  transcendental  physics,  the  elements  of 
which  are  presented  in  materialization  and  other  objective 
phenomena,  is  as  3^et,  however,  only  in  its  first  uncertain 
beginnings.  Belief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul  is  ratified 
by  these  evidences  of  psychical  experience.  It  is  now 
known  that  we  ma}^  seize  our  future  destination  already 
here  in  the  earth-life.  The  trite  saying,  ^Memento  mori'  is 
now  converted  into  the  more  serious  one,  '-Memento  mvere' 
which  means,  'Hemember  that  you  are  to  live  hereafter.' 
The  future  state  is  a  continuation  of  the  present,  and  will 
be  afl'ected  by  our  experiences  and  our  prevailing  thoughts 
and  aflfections  here." 

Coming  from  an  octogenarian  of  vast  experience  in  psy- 
chological and  philosophical  studies,  a  son  of  that  Fichte 
who  was  one  of  the  most  eminent  philosophers  and  elo- 
quent writers  of  German}^,  and  one  of  the  most  active  of 
her  citizens  in  her  day  of  disaster,  the  words  I  have  quoted 
ought  certainly  to  carry  weight.  Fichte  looks  to  the  ad- 
vance of  modern  Spiritualism  as  an  earnest  of  the  revivifi- 
cation of  the  religious  sentiment,  and  the  precursor  of  a 
high  and  lourified  moralit}^ ;  since  a  knowledge  that  we  are 
shaping  our  future  destiny  by  our  acts,  thoughts,  and  aff'ec- 
tions  in  this  life  —  a  knowledge  that  we  are  under  the  scru- 
tinj^  of  all  clairvoyant  spirit-intelligences  —  must,  as  new 
generations  are  bred  up  to  accept  this  as  a  revelation  of 


176  IS   SPIRITUAL  SCIENCE 

science,  exercise  a  most  important  influence  upon  the  char* 
acter  and  conduct  of  mankind. 

Spiritualism  has  been  referred  to  as  "  a  new  rehgion." 
On  the  contrar}^,  it  is  the  attracting  principle,  assimilating 
whatever  is  essential  in  all  religions,  but  contradicting 
nothing  that  the  eminent  saints  and  sages  of  all  the  cen- 
turies have,  in  their  highest  moods,  recognized  as  the 
eternally  true,  and  subverting  nothing  of  vital  truth  in  any 
religion.  Since  SpirituaUsm  is  coeval  with  humanity, 
there  can  be  nothing  new  in  it,  except  so  far  as  there  is 
something  new  in  every  step  made  in  life  and  knowledge 
by  the  human  race,  or  in  every  immortal  soul  that  appears 
on  the  stage  of  terrestrial  being,  and  passes  on  to  the 
spirit- wo  rid. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  Spiritualism  is  now  in  a  tran- 
sitional state,  and  that  we  cannot  expect  its  full  results  in 
a  religious  respect  until  its  external  phenomena  are  freely 
accepted  by  coming  generations  as  facts  of  science.  When 
the  minds  of  men  are  once  set  at  rest  in  regard  to  these 
actual  occurrences,  attention  will  be  more  generally  directed 
to  the  higher,  interior,  and  moral  meanings  which  the  sub- 
ject involves.  We  may  then  expect  the  development  of 
those  truths  which  must  give  new  force  to  the  religious 
intuitions  of  our  nature. 

It  would  hardly  be  fair  to  hold  a  novelist  to  a  strict  phil- 
osophical account  for  the  opinions  he  may  seem  to  favor. 
His  bushiess  is  to  invent  —  to  deal  in  fiction  ;  and  we  can- 
not always  draw  the  Ihie  between  what  he  would  seriously 
teach  and  what  he  means  simply  as  a  bit  of  inoffensive 
character  drawing.  But  the  extent  to  which  the  laudator es 
librorum  novorum,  hostile  to  Spiritualism,  have  extolled 
Mr.  Howells's  "Undiscovered  Country"  as  a  just  and 
much-needed  analysis  of  a  movement  which  is  fast  revolu- 
tionizing the  minds  of  men  in  regard  to  a  future  state, 
induces  me  to  exhibit  the  grounds  of  my  dissent,     If  I 


HOSTILE   TO   RELIGION?  ^        177 

may  believe  the  eulogistic  reviewers,  whose  praise  of  his 
literary  abilit}^  is  doubtless  just,  he  gives  his  own  con- 
clusions in  the  words  of  his  reformed  Spirituahst,  "  Bo^^n- 
ton,"  in  representing  him  as  declaring,  that  "  Spiritualism 
is  a  grosser  materialism  than  that  which  it  denies ;  a  ma- 
terialism that  asserts  and  affirms,  and  appeals  for  proof 
to  purelj^  phj^sical  phenomena,"  — and  that  it  is  "  as  thor- 
oughly godless  as  atheism  itself ;  and  no  man  can  accept  it 
upon  any  other  man's  word  because  it  has  not  3'et  shown 
its  truth  in  the  ameliorated  life  of  men." 

I  do  not  for  a  moment  suppose  that  this  senile  and  vapid 
abuse  of  Spiritualism  by  the  imaginary  old  man  conveys 
the  real  opinions  of  Mr.  Howells.  I  do  not  charge  it  upon 
him,  as  some  of  his  friends  have  done,  that  such  is  the 
fact.  I  will  therefore  reply  to  him  solely  in  his  capacity 
of  a  novelist,  leaving  the  question  open  as  to  his  real 
views. 

The  materialism  which  he  makes  Bojaiton  charge  upon 
Spiritualism  is  (1)  simpl}^  that  of  the  Hebrew  and  Christian 
Scriptures.  See  Gen.-  xviii.,  how  Abraham  entertained 
three  angels  ;  in  the  2d  verse  :  "And,  lo,  three  men  stood 
beside  him  ;  "  and  food  having  been  prepared  for  them,  in 
the  8th  verse  it  is  said,  "  And  he  stood  by  them  under  the 
tree,  and  thej^  did  eat."  In  Ezek.  ii.  9,  we  find  that  a  ma- 
terialized spirit-hand  holds  out  "a  roll  of  a,  book"  .  .  . 
"  written  within  and  without"  by  direct  spirit-power.  The 
crucified  Christ  is  represented  as  entering  a  room  with 
closed  doors,  and  reappearing  in  so  lifelike  and  palpable  a 
form  as  to  be  recognized  b}^  his  disciples,  and  to  be  able  to 
show  his  wounds,  and  to  say  to  one  of  the  Twelve  who  was 
not  present  when  the  Saviour  first  came,  and  who  doubted 
the  report  of  the  rest,  — ' '  Reach  hither  th}"  finger,  and 
behold  my  hands ;  and  reach  hither  thy  hand,  and  thrust 
it  into  my  side  ;  and  be  not  faithless,  but  believing."  Is 
12 


178       .  IS   SPIRITUAL   SCIENCE 

Dot  this  the  very  ne  plus  ultra  of  what  our  amiable  nov- 
elist calls  materialism? 

With  what  new  force  all  this  narrative  is  invested,  when 
one  can  really  accept  it  as  in  perfect  harmony  with  natural 
law,  and  therefore  perfectly  credible ! '  And  when  Jesus 
would  cure  the  apostles  of  that  demonophobia  which  made 
them  regard  a  returned  human  being  as  something  uncanny 
and  unnatural,  did  he  not  vindicate  his  power  of  material- 
ization, and  dissipate  their  dread,  with  the  remark,  "Be- 
hold my  hands  and  my  feet,  that  it  is  I  myself:  handle  me 
and  see  ;  for  a  spirit  hath  not  flesh  and  bones,  as  ye  see 
me  have  "  ?  And  further  to  impress  them  with  a  sense  of 
his  existence  as  the  same  Jesus  they  had  known,  and 
supped  with,  he  says,  "Have  je  any  meat?  And  they 
gave  him  a  x^iece  of  broiled  fish  and  of  an  honejxomb. 
And  he  took  it,  and  did  eat  before  them." 

All  this  "grosser  materialism"  an  experienced  Spir- 
itualist can  accept  as  thoroughly  consistent  with  facts  he 
has  known,  either  as  a  witness  or  through  the  testimony  of 
others.  Truly  here  indeed  is  "a  materialism  that  asserts 
and  affirms,  and  appeals  for  proof  to  purety  ph^^sical  phe- 
nomena." Will  our  novelist  say  it  was  all  right  centuries 
ago,  but  all  wrong  now  ? 

Spiritualism  ma3^  be  to  us  either  a  "gross  materialism" 
or  a  sublime  manifestation  of  spirit-power,  according  to 
the  degree  and  qualit}^  of  our  moral  and  mental  insight  and 
predisposition.  But  how  can  the  reappearance  of  Christ 
affect  me  as  a  type  and  a  guarant}^  of  my  own  immortality 
unless  I  can  see  in  it  the  same  process  b}^  which  other  de- 
parted human  beings  can  give  us  tokens  of  their  existence  ? 
Was  it  then  simply  a  reanimated  corpse,  a  monstrous 
"Frankenstein"  that  appeared  to  the  Twelve?  Or  will 
3^ou  say  it  was  that  corpse  changed  into  a  ' '  glorified 
body"  (a  glorified  body  with  wounds!)  and  refer  to  the 
disappearance   of  the  cadaverous  remains  from  the  sep- 


HOSTILE   TO    RELIGION?  179 

ulchre  as  the  reason  for  3'our  theory  ?  If  it  was  a  body  that 
could  enter  a  room  with  closed^ doors,  it  was  plain!}"  some- 
thing distinct  from  the  earth-body.  Whether  Christ,  as  a 
human  spirit,  had  that  power  over  matter  that  he  could 
dissipate  and  recompose  the  atoms  of  his  old  body,  I  can- 
not say ;  I  will  say,  however,  that  if  he  had  that  power, 
the  presumption  is  that  it  is  one  common  to  all  human 
spirits.  Because  I  accept  so  much  of  the  narrative  as  is 
reconcilable  with  known  facts,  it  does  not  follow  that  I 
must  accept  all  the  rest.  But  I  find  in  the  Christian  Scrip- 
tures no  passage  that  justifies  the  interpretation  that  the 
re-materialized  bod}^  of  Christ  was  a  reconstruction  of  the 
very  particles  of  matter  that  formed  his  physical  organ- 
ism —  the  same  corpse  which  he  had  parted  from  at  his 
crucifixion,  so  re-animated  or  "glorified"  as  to  be  inde- 
pendent of  material  obstructions.  Immortality  must  be 
inferred  from  a  continuation  of  life  quite  independent  of 
the  corruptible  body  that  is  laid  in  the  tomb  to  mingle 
with  the  elements  like  other  corporeal  exuvias  which  we  are 
all  the  time  casting  off. 

Whether  the  spirit  has  that  transcendent  power  that 
would  enable  it  to  create,  independently  of  its  own  form, 
an  animated  simulacrum  of  its  earthly  body,  or  whether  the 
spirit-body  attracts  to  itself  from  the  atomic  spheres  of 
mortals  and  from  the  atmosphere  the  ultimate  particles 
which,  by  condensation,  are  made  to  resemble  any  material 
substance,  or  whether  both  modes  of  presentation  ma}^  be 
used,  are  questions  which  perhaps  can  be  settled  onty  by 
our  own  post-mortem  experiences. 

In  giving  his  readers  to  infer  (2)  that  the  Spiritualist 
has  no  other  proof  than  the  phj^sical  to  which  to  appeal, 
our  novelist  shows  himself  altogether  too  swift  an  accuser. 
What  is  clairvo3"ance  ?  What  is  prevision  ?  What  the  use 
of  languages  unknown  to  the  medium?  The  intellectual 
evidences,  too  various  to  be  summed  up?    The  reminis- 


180  IS   SPIRITUAL   SCIENCE 

cences,  sliowing  that  the  earth-born  affections,  transferred 
to  the  unseen  world,  have  been  deepened  rather  than  par- 
alj'zed  ?  Surely  such  proofs  can  be  classed  as  in  the  highest 
sense  mental  and  spiritual. 

The  charge  (3)  that  Spiritualism  may  be  stigmatized  as 
being  "as  thoroughly  godless  as  atheism  itself,"  since  "  it 
has  not  yet  shown  its  truth  in  the  ameliorated  life  of  men," 
is  a  non-sequitur^  to  which  even  a  novelist,  in  the  full  blast 
of  his  inventive  powers,  ought  not  to  have  resorted.  Pre- 
cisely the  same  argument  might  be  used  against  all  great 
beliefs,  including  those  of  Theism,  Buddhism,  and  Chris- 
tianity. If  we  are  to  gauge  our  estimate  of  the  truth  by 
the  character  of  its  utterers,  our  creed  is  likely  to  be  a 
very  short  one. 

The  novelist  makes  his  representative  Spiritualist,  Boyn- 
ton,  give  up  his  belief  because  he  learns  from  an  old  mag- 
azine that  there  was  once  a  girl  in  whose  presence  some  of 
the  minor  medial  phenomena  occurred,  for  which  the  In- 
vestigator sought  a  natural  cause ;  "  and  he  found  that  by 
insulating  the  posts  of  the  girl's  bedstead  —  for  these  things 
mostly  occurred  during  her  sleep  —  he  controlled  them  per- 
fectly.    She  was  simply  surcharged  with  electricity." 

And  this  is  the  novelist's  explanation  of  the  whole  mat- 
ter !  A  surcharge  of  electricity  !  The  theory  was  exploded 
as  far  back  as  1850  by  the  experiments  of  Dr.  Hare  and 
others  ;  and  the  evocation  of  it  at  this  late  day  to  eke  out 
the  requirements  of  a  work  of  fiction  would  not  call  for 
notice  except  for  the  fact  that  the  device  has  been  com- 
mended as  if  it  were  something  more  than  an  extinct  con- 
jecture. Electricity  has  been  of  no  avail  in  explaining  the 
medial  phenomena.  It  was  used  by  Wm.  Crookes,  F.R.S., 
and  C.  F.  Yarley,  F.R.S.,  to  verify  the  genuineness  of  the 
form-manifestations  at  Mr.  Luxmore's  house,  London,  early 
in  March,  1874.  This  was  done  by  means  of  a  galvanic 
battery  and  cable-testing  apparatus,  which  was  so  delicate 


HOSTILE  TO   RELIGION?  181 

that  any  movement  whatever  on  the  part  of  the  medium 
would  be  instantly  indicated,  while  it  would  be  impossible 
for  her  to  play  the  part  of  the  spirit  without  breaking  the 
circuit  and  being  instantly  detected. 

.  The  novelist's  attempt  to  resuscitate  the  defunct  h3'poth- 
esis  of  insulation  can  delude  only  the  ignorant.  Among 
the  objections  to  Spiritualism  he  puts  into  the  mouth  of  his 
Boj^nton  is  this  :  "  It  offers  nothing  but  the  barren  fact  that 
we  live  again."  So,  then,  we  are  to  accept  his  word  for  it 
that  immortality,  if  a  fact,  is  a  barren  one  ;  and  that  Paul 
was  out  in  his  reckoning  when  he  said,  "  If  in  this  life  only 
we  have  hope,  then  are  we  of  all  men  most  miserable."  A 
barren  fact !  How  many  there  are  who  would  give  up  life 
and  fortune  if  they  could  once  be  sure  of  that  barren  fact ! 

"  The  Immortal  Life,  by  John  Weiss,"  is  the  title  of  a 
posthumous  volume  (1880)  published  in  Boston.  I  knew 
the  author.  He  was  a  man  of  genius  and  a  strenuous  be- 
liever in  human  immortalit}^  But  he  seems  to  have  had 
a  great  disdain  for  a  belief  founded  on  creeds,  traditions, 
or  historical  and  ps3^cho-ph3'Sical  facts.  He  was  so  willing 
to  trust  to  his  own  estimate  of  the  energy  of  the  primitive 
faculties  —  of  the  soul  itself — to  his  own  inward  aspira- 
tions towards  the  immortal  life  —  that  he  even  neglected 
to  investigate  with  any  thoroughness  the  phenomena  which 
would  have  proved  to  him  that  he  was  wrong  in  his  attitude 
of  opposition  to  Modern  Spiritualism. 

He  does  not  put  quite  so  fine  a  point  on  the  great  ques- 
tion as  Matthew  Arnold  does,  who  finds  "  the  true  basis 
for  all  religious  aspiration  after  immortality  "  in  what  he 
calls  "the  strong  sense  of  life  from  righteousness,  capable 
of  being  developed,  apparently  by  progress  in  righteous- 
ness, into  something  immeasurably  stronger."  So  atten- 
uated and  contingent  a  belief  could  hardly  have  suited 
Weiss's  delicate  yet  robust  mind. 

After  frankly  admitting  that  "  if  the  soul  is  going  to  con- 


182     .  IS   SPIRITUAL   SCIENCE 

tinue  its  personal  existence,  and  not  be  merged  into  blind 
currents  of  forces,  or  states  of  motion,  it  must  be  furnished 
with  another  set  of  senses  correspondent  to  another  set  of 
impressions  which  result  from  a  new  relation  between  the 
universe  and  the  soul,"  —  he  plants  himself  in  A^ehement 
antagonism  to  the  ancient  and  rational  idea  of  the  Spirit- 
uaUst,  that  the  germ,  the  embryo,  or  the  psjxhical  organ- 
ism, essential  to  that  continuity  of  personal  existence^  is  in- 
volved in  man's  present  constitution,  and  is  the  explanation 
of  those  spiritual  powers  manifested  in  clairvo3^ance,  in 
pneumatography,  and  other  proved  phenomena. 

This  is  the  view  of  man}^  of  the  greatest  thinkers  in  the 
annals  of  humanity.  Professors  Stewart  and  Tait,  of  Ed- 
inburgh, in  their  "  Unseen  Universe,"  a  work  thoroughly 
scientific  in  its  plan,  tell  us  that  it  is  only  within  the  last 
thirty  or  forty  years  that  there  has  gradually  dawned  upon 
the  minds  of  scientific  men  the  conviction  that  there  is. 
something  besides  matter  or  stufi"  in  the  physical  universe, 
which  has  at  least  as  much  claim  as  matter  to  recognition  as 
cm  objective  reality,  though,  of  course,  far  less  directly  ob- 
vious to  our  senses  as  such,  and  therefore  much  later  in 
being  detected.  Crookes's  discovery  of  the  supra-gaseous 
state  of  matter  in  high  vacua  I  have  remarked  upon  else- 
where. 

The  physicists  to  whom  I  have  referred  arrive  logically 
at  the  conclusion  that  there  is  an  invisible  universe,  from 
which  life  as  well  as  matter  proceed,  and  that  immortality 
is  possible  vnthout  a  breah  of  continuity .  Thus  they  accept 
the  Pauline  doctrine  of  a  spiritual  body,  now  existing, 
either  actually  or  potentially,  and  making  hfe  continuous 
from  the  seen  to  the  unseen  world  ;  and  they  quote  with  ap- 
proval this  passage  from  Swedenborg  :  "  A  man  at  death 
escapes  from  his  material  body  as  from  a  rent  or  worn-out 
vesture,  carrying  with  him  every  member,  faculty,  and 
function  complete,  with  not  one  wanting,  yet  the  corpse  is 


HOSTILE  TO   RELIGION?  183 

as  heavy  as  when  he  dwelt  therein."  From  this  it  would 
seem  that  Swedenborg  regarded  the  nervous  fluid  as  among 
the  so-called  imponderables.  Why,  then,  should  not  the 
spiritual  bod^^  belong  to  the  same  class  ? 

The  spiritual  senses,  Weiss  tells  us,  do  not  jet  exist.  He 
saj's : 

"  They  cannot  exist ;  the  ground  is  preoccupied.  The 
soul  can  be  related  to  but  one  body  at  a  time,  just  as  it  can 
think  but  one  thought  and  experience  but  one  feeling  at  a 
time  ;  for  the  most  complex  internal  sensations  have  a  uni- 
ty, whose  place  cannot  be  occupied  by  another  at  the  same 
time.  There  is  a  natural  body  and  there  is  a  spiritual  bod}', 
but  not  both  at  once  ;  and  one  cannot  overlap  and  be  en- 
tangled in  the  other.  The  soul  must  be  entirely  ignorant 
of  the  second  body  until  it  has  ceased  to  use  the  first." 

Here  is  a  tissue  of  plausible  assertions  without  one  par- 
ticle of  scientific  proof.  Cannot  a  man  make  use  of  two 
senses  at  once?  Cannot  I  both  hear  and  see  j'ou,  and  shall 
it  be  said  that  the  seeing  and  hearing  are  not  a  simulta- 
neous complex  thought,  but  that  one  mast  precede  the 
other?  Experience  contradicts  the  notion,  however  stoutly 
logic  may  assert  it:  The  faculties  and  capabilities  of  the 
soul  are  complex.  Clairvo3'ance  proves  that  there  is  some- 
thing deeper  in  us  than  our  external  faculties  of  vision ; 
though  of  this  we  may  be  unconscious  in  our  normal  state. 
Weiss  is  in  error  when  he  argues  that  one  faculty  may  not 
"overlap  another"  as  3^et  latent  or  undeveloped.  The 
analogies  b}'  which  he  would  jorove  that  the  soul  cannot  be 
simultaneoush'  related  to  its  earth-body  and  its  spirit-body 
are  purel}^  fanciful ;  and  his  attempt  to  correct  the  apostle 
Paul,  who  distinctl^y  tells  us  that  "  there  is  a  natural  body 
and  there  is  "  (not  shall  be)  "  a  spiritual  body,"  is  a  little 
presumptuous,  seeing  that  the  contradiction  is  so  unsup- 
ported by  proofs.  As  well  might  he  say  that  the  worm 
and  the  potential  chrysalis  could  not  coexist.  Is  it  true, 
as  Weiss  asserts,  that  a  man  can  experience  but  one  feel- 


184  IS  SPIRITUAL  SCIENCE 

ing  at  a  time?  Can  he  not  be  simaltaneously  afflicted  by 
tooth-ache  and  a  twinge  of  the  gout  —  b}' frost  and  fire? 
"  No  matter,"  he  saj'S,  "  how  curious  the  facts  of  somnam- 
buhsm,  of  unconscious  cerebration,  of  the  magnectic  con- 
dition, and  of  those  which  arise  from  a  double  hemispheric 
brain,  maj^  be,  they  are  all  referable  to  one  material  body, 
and  to  the  soul,  its  ordinary  tenant,  who  cannot  quit  with- 
out killing  it  —  who  cannot  have  another  till  that  one  is 
JdUecV 

Strangely  contradictory  to  these  views  is  the  following 
sentence,  which  comes  in  some  sixteen  lines  further  on : 
"  Nothing  can  save  the  soul  from  collapsing  into  the  blind 
forces  of  the  world  but  the  preservation  of  its  identity ; 
and  that  cannot  be  preserved  without  a  frame  to  hold  it,  a 
system  of  organs  by  which  it  can  express  spiritual  func- 
tion." Well  and  truly  stated !  Stick  a  pin  there.  But 
what  is  to  become  of  the  soul  at  death  unless  this  "  frame 
to  hold  it,"  this  "  system  of  organs  by  which  it  can  ex- 
press spiritual  function,"  is  pre-related  to  it  so  that  there 
shall  be  no  unbridged  hiatus  —  so  that  "the  frame  to  hold 
it "  (the  soul)  shall  not  be  a  foreign  body  magically  sent 
for  its  occupancy  (at  death),  but  a  body  with  organs  in  full 
harmony  with  all  the  mental  activities,  the  experiences  and 
developments  of  its  earth-Ufe?  In  continuous  existence 
there  must  be  an  organ  for  memory,  connecting  the  indi- 
\i(\ualiuith  the  past^  and  in  the  next  place  such  an  organism 
and  such  a  universe  that  he  can  be  active  in  various  ways 
in  the  present.  All  this  is  substantially  admitted  bj^  Pro- 
fessors Stewart  and  Tait.  And  how  else  is  identity  to  be 
preserved  in  the  transition  from  one  state  of  being  to  an- 
other? How  is  the  interval  to  be  annulled,  unless  the  soul 
can  carry  with  it  that  "  system  of  organs,"  which,  as  Weiss 
tells  us,  (inconsistently  with  his  objections  to  a  duplex 
organism,)  is  essential  to  its  preservation  from  "  a  collapse 
into  the  blind  forces  of  the  world  "  ? 


HOSTILE   TO    RELIGION  ?  185 

Weiss  seems  to  be  of  the  opinion  that  the  disembodied 
soul  will  "  attract "  a  suitable  body.     He  says  : 

"  The  soul  of  3'our  friend,  then,  passes  from  a  frame  of 
flesh  into  a  frame  more  subtl}^  woven,  ivithout  a  single  cor- 
poreal cliaracteristic  in  it,  yet  not  ivithout  the  character  of 
matter.  So  to  speak,  blood  will  still  tell ;  that  is  to  say, 
the  finer  soul  will  attract  and  use  the  finer  bodj',  just  as  it 
does  now  b}'  the  principle  of  heredity." 

Subtly  reasoned  and  partially  true  ;  onl}"  one  considera- 
tion is  dropped  which  vitiates  the  hj'pothesis  as  a  whole. 
Weiss  has  told  us  distinctly  that  the  soul's  identity  "  cannot 
be  preserved  without  a  frame  to  hold  it."  Yet  now  he 
launches  his  soul  (it  matters  not  whether  for  a  moment  or 
for  an  eternity)  into  disembodiment,  ' '  merges  it  into  blind 
currents  of  forces,  or  states  of  motion,"  leaving  it  to  the 
soul,  thus  merged  and  loosened  from  all  its  moorings,  to 
attract  to  itself  a  frame  that  shall  be  'ivithout  a  single 
corporeal  characteristic  in  it,  yet  not  ivithout  the  character  oj 
matter  r'  Is  not  matter  itself  a  "  corporeal  characteris- 
tic "  ?    Was  Weiss  of  Hibernian  descent  ? 

Is  there  not  a  lack  of  precision  and  consistency  in  an 
argument  like  this  ?  Shutting  his  eyes  to  the  facts  of  Spir- 
ritualism,  how  could  he  help  being  carried  into  these  gross 
contradictions?  For  be  it  said,  John  Weiss,  when  he  has 
truth  on  his  side,  as  he  often  has,  argues  with  a  precision 
and  force  which  places  him  high  among  the  best  and  most 
original  thinkers  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Against  the  phenomenon  of  form-manifestation,  or  the 
power  of  spirits  to  "  materialize  themselves  into  visibility," 
he  brings  this  objection:  "They  already  have  a  bodj^  of 
their  own,  and  yet  we  are  told  they  make  another  body  out 
of  some  property  of  the  medium.  The  spirit  could  not 
exist  for  an  instant  without  its  body,  and  j^et  it  slips  into 
one  which  the  medium  exhales." 

There  are  two  theories  as  to  the  mode  of  the  presenta- 


186  IS    SPIRITUAL   SCIENCE 

tion.  One  is,  that  the  spirit  does  not  really  become  in- 
corporated in  the  visible  bod}^  or  member,  but  that  he  has 
that  power  over  the  elements  of  matter  that  he  can  create, 
independently  of  his  own  spirit-body,  an  animated  simula- 
crum of  his  earthly  body  as  it  was  at  siuj  period  of  its  ex- 
istence. The  other  theory  is,  that  the  spirit-body  may 
attract  to  itself  from  the  atomic  sphferes  of  the  medium  and 
others,  or  from  the  atmosphere,  the  ultimate  particles,  finer 
than  the  effluvia  of  musk,  which  bj^  condensation  are  made 
to  resemble  an}^  material  object,  according  to  the  will  of 
the  spirit,  and  that  he  can  do  this  with  the  rapiditj^  of 
thought.  The  latter  is  the  common  theory,  though  the 
former  is  perhaps  more  consistent  with  the  fact  that  the 
manifestations  are  often  so  fragmentary  and  imperfect. 
The  extemporization  is  then  merely  tentative  ;  the  memory 
of  the  "materialized"  spirit  is  often  at  fault;  and  the 
mind  sometimes  works  as  if  it  were  in  a  mist. 

It  has  been  asked:  "  Do  the  spirits  really  extemporize 
bodies  possessing  all  the  chemical  constituents  and  organic 
parts  belonging  to  the  corporeal  forms  which  they  occupied 
during  their  rudimental  life  on  earth  ?  "  Obviousty  this  is- 
a  question  which  cannot  as  ^-et  be  answered.  There  is 
good  reason  to  believe  that  spirits  economize  their  efforts, 
and  give  no  more  than  is  necessary  for  the  purpose  in  view. 
If  they  can  suggest  identity  by  simplj^  presenting  a  hand, 
known  by  some  peculiar  malformation  to  be  a  fac-simile  of 
a  hand  once  belonging  to  the  earth-body  of  a  relative  or 
friend,  they  may  confine  themselves  to  this  one  manifesta- 
tion. Sometimes  merely  the  facial  part  of  a  head  is  pre- 
sented, while  the  back  part  is  hollow  or  amorphous.  Dr. 
J.  M.  Gully,  an  educated  ph3'sician,  formerl}^  at  the  head 
of  the  well-known  water-cure  establishment  at  Great  Mal- 
vern, has  brought  his  powers  of  calm,  philosophical  inves- 
tigation to  our  phenomena,  and  in  one  of  his  letters  to  me 


HOSTILE   TO   RELIGION?  187 

he  writes,  Jul}^  20,  1874,  in  regard  to  the  experiments  with 
Florence  Cook : 

"  That  the  power  grows  with  use  was  curiously  illustrated 
by  the  fact  that,  for  some  time  only  a  face  was  producible, 
with  occasionally  arms  and  hands  ;  with  no  hair,  and  some- 
times with  no  back  to  the  skull  at  all  —  merel3'  a  mask,  with 
movement,  however,  of  eyes  and  mouth.  Gradually  the 
wJiole  form  appears  —  after,  perhaps,  some  five  months  of 
seances,  once  or  twice  a  week.  This  again  becomes  more 
and  more  rapidly  formed,  and  changed,  in  hair,  dress,  and 
color  of  face,  as  we  desired." 

Mr.  Tapp,  of  the  Dalston  (England)  Association  of  In- 
quirers, relates  that  he  was  frequently  permitted  to  scan 
the  face  and  figure  of  the  spirit  form  known  as  Katie,  com- 
ing through  Miss  Cook,  in  a  good  light.  Once  she  laid  her 
right  arm  in  his  outstretched  hands,  and  allowed  him  to 
examine  it  closely.  It  was  plump  and  shapelj^,  longer  than 
that  of  the  medium.  The  hands,  too,  were  much  larger, 
with  beautifully  shaped  nails,  unlike  those  of  Miss  Cook, 
who  was  in  the  bad  habit  of  biting  her  nails.  Holding 
the  arm  of  the  materialized  form  lightly  in  one  hand,  he 
passed  the  other  hand  along  it  from  the  shoulder.  "  The 
skin,"  he  says,  "  was  beautifnlly  —  I  may  say  unnaturall}^ 
—  smooth,  like  wax  or  marble ;  yet  the  temperature  was 
that  of  the  healthy  human  body.  There  was,  hoiuever,  no 
bone  in  the  tuHst.  I  lightly  felt  round  the  wrist  again,  and 
then  told  Katie  that  the  bone  was  wanting.  She  laughed 
and  said,  'Wait  a  bit ; '  and  after  going  about  to  the  other 
sitters,  she  came  round  and  placed  her  arm  in  my  hand  as 
before."  This  time  Mr.  Tapp  was  satisfied  ;  the  bone  was 
there.  On  another  occasion  he  caught  the  spirit-form  by 
the  wrist,  and  he  says  :  "  Her  wrist  crumpled  in  my  grasp 
like  a  piece  of  paper  or  thin  card-board,  my  fingers  meet- 
ing through  it.  I  let  go  at  once,  and  expressed  my  regret." 
Katie  reassured  him,  and  forgave  the  unintended  rudeness, 
saying  she  could  "  avert  any  untoward  consequence." 


188  IS   SPIRITUAL   SCIENCE 

Facts  like  these  may  not  yet  be  as  scientifically  demon- 
sirable  as  the  typical  facts  of  my  "basis,"  but  the}^  are 
credible  and  consistent.  They  show  that  these  spirit- 
materializations  ma}^  be  often  fractional  and  imperfect.  At 
the  same  time,  we  have  reason  to  suppose  that  all  the  parts 
of  a  human  bod}^,  exterior  or  interior,  including  the  blood 
and  the  viscera,  may,  if  ivanted,  be  either  imitated  or  du- 
l^licated  b}^  spirit-power.  The  fact  that  parts  are  often 
omitted  in  the  materialization  is  no  argument  against  the 
power  to  produce  a  complete  whole.  The  existence  of  un- 
testable  atoms  is  assumed  by  materialism  as  a  reasonable 
h3'pothesis.  May  it  not  be  that  spirits  can  exercise  over 
those  atoms  a  power  not  easily  conceivable  by  mortal  intel- 
ligence, in  composing  and 'dissipating  transient  forms,  just 
as  they  can  do  many  other  things,  as  to  which  we  cannot 
as  3xt  begin  to  explain  the  modus  operandi? 

My  own  experience  confirms  that  of  Dr.  Gulh\  It  is 
not  to  specialists  in  science,  wholly  unprepared  for  proofs 
of  ps3xhic  power,  that  I  address  myself  here.  What  I 
have  to  say  will  not,  I  am  well  aware,  help  m}^  credit  with 
man}^  whose  good  opinion  I  would  like  to  have.  But  I 
must  make  a  clean  breast  of  it.  Of  the  fact  that  I  have 
witnessed  the  attempt  of  a  venerated  relative,  not  of  this 
world,  to  manifest  to  me  objectively  at  a  medial  seance, 
her  identity  through  her  power  over  matter  in  producing  a 
simulacrum  of  her  earth-body,  I  have  never  had  a  doubt 
since  the  occurrence.  At  first  the  face  presented  was  a 
mere  disk,  with  hardl}^  a  feature  prominent,  reminding  me 
of  the  face-hke  picture  of  the  moon  in  story-books.  I  at 
once  said:  "This  manifestation  cannot  be  for  me"  (as  it 
had  claimed  to  be)  ;  "I  do  not  recognize  a  single  trait." 
There  was  a  delay  of  half  a  minute  at  the  aperture,  and 
then  the  entranced  medium  said  :  "  The  spirit  insists  ;  she 
sa^'s  it  is  for  3^ou  that  she  is  waiting,  and  asks  you  to  look 
again."     I  consented,  went  up  again  to  the  aperture,  an(J 


HOSTILE  TO   RELIGION?  189 

at  once,  without  any  forethouglit  or  anticipation,  exclaimed, 
'  Is  it  possible  ! '  The  recognition  was  instantaneous.  I 
mentioned  no  name,  asked  no  question.  But  the  spirit, 
through  the  simulacrum,  seemed  to  know  at  once  that  her 
attempt  had  been  successful ;  and  her  forailiar  and  peculiar 
demonstrations  of  delight  and  affection  were  even  more 
convincing  than  words.  Every  little  gesture,  the  dainty 
and  pla,yful  putting  up  of  two  hands  to  p)at  me  on  the 
cheeks,  the  kiss  on  the  forehead,  were  all  reproductions  of 
the  old  ways  which  characterized  her,  when  during  her  last 
illness  I  used  to  enter  her  room  to  receive  her  good-night 
kiss.  "  Can  j'ou  give  me  no  message  for  L.?"  I  asked. 
Tnstantl}^  she  seemed  to  pull  away  at  her  cap-strings,  tore 
off  a  strip  of  lace,  and  pressed  it  into  my  hand.  There 
ended  the  interview,  and  I  was  convinced,  not  only  from 
internal  evidence,  but  from  other  indescribable  circum- 
stances, that  it  was  no  transfiguration  of  the  medium,  but 
an  independent  act  of  the  spirit.  T  had,  before  the  sitting, 
ncA^er  once  thought  of  her  in  connection  with  her  possible 
manifestation  ;  and  that  the  medium  knew  nothing  of  the 
relationship,  I  have  not  the  slightest  reason  to  doubt.  The 
facts  cannot  be  described  in  a  way  to  be  scientifically  pre- 
sentable, but  the}^  are  none  the  less  facts  confirmatory  to 
the  one  mortal  to  v^hom  they  were  given.     I  should  add 

that  the  cap-string  was  recognized  by  L as  a  fac-simile 

of  those  which  the  individual  used  to  make  for  herself  out 
of  lace.  The  strip  was  put  in  a  box  and  placed  in  a 
drawer :  in  a  few  months  it  had  disappeared,  how  we  know 
not,  as  we  have  no  reason  to  suppose  the  box  was  ever 
meddled  with. 

It  has  been  asked.  What  becomes  of  the  matter  of  these 
tangible  simulacra,  when  they  disappear?  It  has  been  said 
that  a  corpse  ought  to  be  left  as  evidence  of  the  vacation 
of  a  bod}^,  whether  extemporized  or  of  gradual  growth,  by 
a  spirit.     Now  until  we  know  what  matter  is,  and  until  we 


190  IS    SPIRITUAL   SCIENCE 

can  accuratel}'  gauge  the  power  of  a  spirit,  it  is  unwise  to 
assume  that  spirits  cannot  have  the  power  of  dissipating 
extemporized  matter,  so  that  the  atoms  shall  be  just  as 
iiiTisible  as  they  were  previous  to  the  formation.  The 
amazing  celerity  with  which  they  do  this  is  no  evidence 
against  either  the  fact  of  formation  or  of  dissipation ;  for 
we  know  that  this  spirit-power  can  exercise  a  superhuman 
celerity  in  moving  things,  and  in  producing  long  written 
messages.  If  superhuman  power  can  be  exercised  in  one 
direction,  why  not  in  another?  To  give  to  this  i)ower  the 
bad  name  of  magical  docs  not  alter  the  well-attested  facts. 
Everything  that  is  inexplicable  to  us  may  be  stigmatized 
with  the  same  epithet ;  and  3'et  all  finite  causes  and  elfects 
msij  be  strictl\'  v/ithin  the  sphere  of  the  natural.  But  here 
I  should  add  that  there  are  investigators  who  testify  to 
having  experienced  a  cadaverous  odor  at  the  dematerializa- 
tion  of  these  fugitive  forms. 

This  theory  that  the  spirit  is  simplj^  exeix'ising  its  power 
over  matter,  and  is  not  at  all  presenting  itself  as  an  em- 
bodied entitj^  entirely  does  away  with  the  objections  raised 
b}^  Weiss.  What  I  may  call  his  contingent  objections  to 
the  belief  that  the  so-called  spiritual  manifestations  are 
from  spirits,  are  thus  summed  up  : 

' '  If  you  owe  your  belief  in  immortality  to  the  assumed 
facts  of  a  spiritual  intercourse,  your  belief  is  at  the  merc,y 
of  your  assumption.  It  has  not  sprung  from  the  vital 
necessity  of  your  own  soul,  it  is  not  a  craving  which  justi- 
fies and  demands  its  future  satisfaction,  but  it  is  merel}''  an 
opinion  derived  from  a  variet}-  of  phenomena ;  and  when 
those  which  attracted  3'our  attention,  or  when  the  tricks 
which  imposed  upon  3'Our  love  of  the  marvellous,  are  ex- 
plained away,  3'our  imraortalit}'  is  also  explained  awa3\ 
You  did  not  derive  it  from  a  spiritual  fact  of  3'our  own 
con3ciousness ;  you  did  not  build  it  out  of  reasonable 
judgments  ;  3-ou  are  at  the  me]-C3^  of  what  may  prove  to 
be  a  delusion.  Can  a  delusion  import  a  spiritual  truth 
into  the  soul?    Now,  grant  that  eventually  we  shall  dis- 


HOSTILE   TO    RELIGION  ?  191 

cover  that  we  are  immortal,  whether  we  believe  it  now  or 
not ;  grant  that,  in  the  meantime,  it  is  human  and  proper 
to  wish  to  believe  it  and  to  know  it,  to  see  the  horizon  of 
our  life  expand,  lifting  and  ennobling  all  our  thoughts, 
justifying  our  love,  and  putting  before  our  deeds  a  botnid- 
less  career.  But  ice  cannot  derive  a  faith  in  personal  im- 
mortality  from  occurrences  luliich  take  place  in  darkened 
rooms  and  cabinets.  Your  opinion  derived  from  them  is 
worth  no  more  than  the  ordinary  opinion  which  is  based  on 
texts  and  dogmas.  Withdraw  the  theology,  and  the  truth 
comes  toppling  down.  Withdraw  your  phenomena,  and, 
for  all  3^ou  know,  annihilation  may  have  been  the  fate  of 
those  you  loved,  and  maybe  your  own." 

Here  the  pith  of  the  whole  argument  is  evolved  from  a 
mistake.  It  proceeds  from  the  premise  that  the  facts  of 
Spiritualism  are  assumed  by  us,  and  not  known.  Now  the 
experienced  Spiritualist  knoivs  that  certain  phenomena  are 
as  much  facts,  proved  by  his  senses  and  his  common  sense, 
as  the  fact  that  the  sun  shines  or  the  grass  grows.  He  has 
no  more  fear  that  certain  phenomena  can  ever  be  proved  to 
be  tricks,  than  he  has  a  fear  that  life  itself  is  a  trick,  im- 
posed on  us  by  some  malignant  Power.  We  need  but 
instance  the  phenomena  of  clairvoyance  and  of  direct 
writing.  Any  one,  who  has  faithfullj^,  practically',  and 
intelligently  studied  the  subject,  actually  knows  that  these 
take  place  under  conditions  which  utterty  exclude  the  pos- 
sibility of  trick,  hallucination,  or  any  abnormal  state  of 
our  consciousness. 

It  is  not,  then,  in  the  least  true  that  our  "belief  in  im- 
mortality "is  "at  the  mercy  of  an  assumption;"  for  it  is 
a  belief — nay,  much  more  than  a  belief — founded  on  a 
knowledge  of  actual  facts,  supersensual  and  preterhuman 
in  their  nature.  What  if  it  has  not  sprung  from  "a  crav- 
ing which  justifies  and  demands  its  future  satisfaction"? 
So  long  as  the  belief,  or  rather  the  conviction,  confirms  the 
craving,  are  not  both  mutually  strengthened  ?  The  intima- 
tion that  it  is  "a  love  of  the  marvellous,"  which  leads  the 


192  IS   SPIRITUAL  SCIENCE 

serious  and  well-endowed  mind  —  such  minds  as  Whatel}", 
Fichte,  Yfallace,  Chambers,  Elizabeth  Browning,  and 
Franz  Hoffman  —  to  accept  certain  phenomena  as  giving 
evidence  of  spiritual  power,  is  an  unwarrantable  accusa- 
tion, which  we  need  not  answer. 

When  Weiss  would  narrow  down  our  anticipations  of 
immortality  to  "  the  vital  necessity"  of  our  own  soul —  to 
what  he  calls  a  "craving," — he  leaves  out  of  view  the 
important  fact  that  there  are  many  excellent  persons  who 
do  not  feel  that  "  vital  necessity,"  or  that  "  craving."  Wil- 
liam Humboldt,  David  F.  Strauss,  Harriet  Martineau,  and 
man}^  other  skeptics,  did  not  feel  it 

The  Spiritualist  does  not  have  to  draw  on  those  doubtful 
arguments  for  immortalit}^  which  depend  on  the  fact  that 
the  majorit}^  of  men  deduce  it  from  the  "  emotions,"  or 
crave  it  as  "a  vital  necessity."  Such,  as  we  have  else- 
where shown,  is  not  the  true  genesis  of  the  wide-spread 
belief.  The  inherited  "  cravings"  of  the  race  ma}^  change. 
Those  who  agree  with  Strauss  and  Humboldt  maj^  become 
the  majority.  What,  then,  becomes  of  one  of  the  great 
arguments  for  a  future  life,  which  are  used  by  such  reasdn- 
ers  as  Weiss  ? 

I  do  not  regard  such  an  event  as  possible  —  ' '  thanks  to 
the  human  heart  by  which  we  live  ! "  Referring  to  mate- 
rialistic atheism.  Professor  Tyndall  says:  "I  have  noticed 
during  years  of  self-observation  that  it  is  not  in  hours  of 
clearness  and  vigor  that  this  doctrine  commends  itself  to 
my  mind ;  that  in  the  presence  of  stronger  and  health'ier 
thought  it  ever  dissolves  and  disappears,  as  offering  no 
solution  of  the  mystery,  in  which  we  dwell,  and  of  which 
we  form  a  part."  And  Thomas  Shorter,  one  of  the  clearest 
expounders  of  Spiritualism,  tells  us  that  G.  L.  Holyoake, 
the  English  founder  of  Secularism,  which,  like  Positivism, 
denies  or  ignores  God  and  a  future  life,  in  a  passage  of 
great  tenderness  and  pathos,  describing  the  death  of  his 


HOSTILE  TO    RELIGION?  193 

child,  avows  that  even  to  him  a  pure  and  rational  faith  in 
immortality  would  be  more  congenial  than  the  cold  nega- 
tions and  dreary  platitudes  to  which  his  life  has  been  mainly 
devoted.  Referring  to  his  daughter,  Holj^oake  says : 
"  Yes,  a  future  life,  bringing  with  it  the  admission  to  such 
companionship,  would  be  a  noble  joy  to  contemplate." 

Thackeray,  who  was  more  than  half  a  Spiritualist,  and 
who  caused  an  outcry  against  himself  because  he  admitted 
into  his  magazine  an  article  asserting  the  phenomena,  saj's, 
writing  about  death:  "I  know  one  small  philosopher"  — 
meaning  himself — "who  is  quite  ready  to  give  up  these 
pleasures  ;  quite  content  (after  a  pang  or  two  of  separation 
from  dear  friends  here)  to  put  his  hand  into  that  of  the 
summoning  angel,  and  say,  '  Lead  on,  O  Messenger  of  God 
our  Father,  to  the  next  place  whither  the  divine  goodness 
calls  us  ! '  We  must  be  blindfolded  before  we  can  pass,  I 
know ;  but  I  have  no  fear  about  what  is  to  come  an}^  more 
than  my  children  need  fear  that  the  love  of  their  father 
should  fail  them." 

When  Weiss  says  that  immortality  tuslj  be  explained 
away  as  soon  as  the  phenomena  are  explained  awa}-,  he 
supposes  a  case  which  we  do  not  admit  as  any  more  pos- 
sible than  that  the  soul's  own  faculties  should  be  explained 
awa}^  A  fact  like  clairvo3"ance  cannot  be  explained  aivay ; 
it  can  be  explained  only  by  the  theory  of  the  action  of  a 
spiritual  faculty  ;  and  we  may  say  the  same  of  the  fact  of 
pneumatography.  We  know  that  in  the  nature  of  things 
they  can  never  be  proved  to  be  tricks,  any  more  than  the 
genius  of  a  Shakspeare  or  of  a  Mozart  can  be  proved  to 
be  a  trick.  It  is  not  true  that  facts  like  these  are  not  as 
real  as  anj'  external  fact  can  be  ;  or  that  they  are  not  built 
"  out  of  reasonable  judgments;"  or  that  we  are  "  at  the 
mercj'  of  what  ma}'  proA^e  a  delusion,"  —  unless  we  assume 
that  human  life  itself  is  a  delusion. 

The  climax  of  Weiss's  course  of  reasoning  is,  that  "  we 
13 


194  IS   SPIRITUAL   SCIENCE 

cannot  derive  a  faith  in  personal  immortality  from  occur- 
rences which  take  place  in  darkened  rooms  and  cabinets." 
Here  he  shows  the  limitation  of  his  acquaintance  with  the 
real  facts.  His  supreme  argument  is  made  null  and  void 
by  the  simple  truth.  Had  he  bravel}",  and  without  being 
hampered  by  his  preconceived  notions,  entered  into^an  in- 
vestigation of  the  actual  phenomena,  he  would  soon  have 
learned  that  the  most  important  of  them  may  occur  in 
broad  daylight  under  conditions  where  fraud  is  actually 
impossible,  and  where  the  knowledge  got  can  never  be  sur- 
rendered. Trj'  to  argue  out  of  his  convictions  the  true 
man,  who,  by  man}^  and  long-continued  experiments,  has 
once  satisfied  himself  as  to  the  phenomena  of  clairvoyance 
and  direct  writing  :  —  Can  your  ignorance,  however  subtle 
your  arguments,  be  a  match  for  his  knowledge? 

Until  3'ou  can.  show  him  that  3'ou  can  read  what  is  writ- 
ten on  a  tightly-folded,  untouched  pellet,  and  teach  him 
how  to  do  it  himself,  by  a  trick  impenetrable  to  the  vigi- 
lance of  the  most  experienced  juggler,  you  can  make  no 
impression.  And  this  \o\x  cannot  do,  since  it  is  impos- 
sible for  3'ou  to  read  without  ej^es,  unless  helped  by  some 
supersensual  faculty,  as  we  suppose  the  medium  to  be. 

"  For  as  he  thinketh  in  his  heart  so  is  he."  Solomon's 
wisdom  is  also  the  wisdom  of  Spiritualism.  Thought  is 
the  supreme  factor  in  the  universe.  Thoughts  are  not  mere 
evanescent  nothings.  They  have  an  almost  objective  force. 
The}^  build  up  and  shape  the  fabric  of  our  minds,  as  snow- 
flakes  make  the  avalanche.  Even  the  thoughts  of  delirium, 
though  we  may  not  be  responsible  for  them,  leave  their 
impress.  All  that  we  are  is  the  result  of  what  we  have 
thought.  /""If  a  man  speaks  or  acts  with  an  evil  thought," 
says  Buddha,  "pain  follows  him  as  the  wheel  follows  the 
foot  of  him  who  draws  it.  If  a  man  speaks  or  acts  with  a 
pure  thought,  happiness  follows  him  like  a  shadow  that 
never  leaves  him."     To  drive  out  bad  thoughts  by  good, 


HOSTILE   TO  RELIGION?  195 

error  by  truth,  and  to  give  our  best,  most  unbiased  think- 
ing to  the  cause  of  truth,  is  the  road  to  the  gate  of 
Heaven.  This  is  the  great  admonition  which  we  get  from 
Spiritualism.  Let  us  sa}^,  in  the  words  of  Zoroaster, 
''  Come  to  me,  3'e  high  realities  !  Grant  me  your  immor- 
tality, 3'our  duration  of  possession  forever  !  " 

The  Spiritualist  who  has  not  in  his  own  reason  an  um- 
pire higher  than  that  which  any  medium  can  bring,  is  badly 
provided,  and  for  him  Spiritualism  may  indeed  be  "  a  de- 
lusion and  a  snare."  The  late  Pocasset  horror,  where  a 
father  slaughtered  his  helpless  child  in  the  fanatical  notion 
of  emulating  the  faith  of  Abraham,  shows  the  dangers  of 
hihliolatry ;  but  the  dangers  of  demonolatry  are  quite  as 
great ;  and  the  incautious  Spiritualist,  accepting  as  infal- 
lible the  message  of  a  spirit,  maj^  be  led  into  blunders 
hardly  less  tragical  than  that  of  poor  Freeman. 

Rightly  studied,  Spiritualism  is  the  strongest  possible 
safeguard  against  all  such  superstitions.  But  if  we  are  to 
accept  as  gospel  the  impositions  of  any  spiritual  tramp 
who,  under  the  name  of  St.  Paul,  Bacon,  or  Swedenborg, 
may  wish  to  fool  us,  we  had  better  go  back  at  once  to 
the  old  theology  and  rest  in  its  bosom.  Spiritualism,  in 
this  its  inchoate  state,  is  for  clear  heads  and  patient  hearts 
and  tranquil  temperaments.  To  those  who  have  sur- 
mounted the  perplexities,  abuses,  misconstructions,  and 
frauds,  the  ennui  and  the  disaffections  which  beset  one's 
way  to  it,  and  which  are  all  accounted  for  by  eternal  laws 
operative  both  in  the  sensual  and  supersensual  spheres,  it 
is  the  summit  of  all  earthly  content.  I  may  sa}'  of  it,  in 
the  words  of  Sir  Archibald  Alison :  "It  is  like  the  black 
mountain  of  Bender,  in  India ;  the  higher  3-ou  advance, 
the  steeper  is  the  ascent,  the  darker  and  more  desolate  the 
objects  with  which  j'ou  are  surrounded  ;  but  when  3'ou  are 
at  the  summit,  the  heaven  is  above  3^our  head,  and  at  3'our 
feet  the  kingdom  of  Cashmere." 


196  PHENOMENAL  PROOFS. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

PHENOMENAL  PROOFS.  — FORM-MANIFESTATIONS. — CARTESIAN 

ERRORS. THE    PAULINE    DOCTRINE    OP  A  SPIRITUAL   BODY. 

INTUITIONAL    TESTIMONY. 

All  that  is  meant  by  the  phrase  spmt-materialization  is, 
that  a  spirit  has  such  a  power  over  the  elements  of  matter, 
that  he  can  make  animate  and  palpable  the  whole  or  a  part 
of  a  body  resembling  that  which  he  had  at  any  period  of 
his  earth-life.  Ever  since  1848  these  partial  or  full-form 
manifestations  have  been  common.  In  all  ages  of  the  world 
they  have  been  known,  though  the  testimon}'  in  regard  to 
them  has  been  rejected  often  b}'  the  inexperienced.  At  the 
manifestations  of  the  celebrated  Davenport  Brothers  as  far 
back  as  1850,  a  full  spirit-form  would  not  unfrequently 
appear.  Their  father.  Dr.  Ira  Davenport,  whom  I  have 
questioned  on  the  subject,  and  of  whose  good  faith  no  one 
who  knows  him  can  doubt,  assured  me  (1879)  that  the  phe- 
nomenon was  proved  repeatedly  in  his  own  house,  and 
through  the  medial  attraction  of  his  ovrn  sons,  under  con- 
ditions where  fraud  or  delusion  was  impossible.  There 
have  been  charges  of  fraud  (bj^  no  means  conclusive) 
against  the  ^'  brothers,"  but  that  genuine  manifestations 
were  given  b}'  them  cannot  now  be  disputed. 

The  late  Dr.  H.  F.  Gardner,  of  Boston,  informed  me 
that  on  one  occasion,  in  broad  daylight,  D.  D.  Home  being 
the  medkim,  he  had  grasped  a  detached  human  hand,  which 
melted  away  as  if  into  impalpable,  invisible  vapor,  and  dis- 
appeared in  his  grasp. 

Dr.  John  Garth  Wilkinson,  of  London,  describes  a  sim- 


THE   SPIRIT-BODY.  197 

ilar  experiment  with  Home.  Carrying  out  the  idea  of  a 
spiritual  body  infolded  within  and  controlling  the  ph^'sical, 
he  says  :  ' '  Could  we  behold  an  apparition  of  the  nervous 
spirit,  waving  and  sweeping  through  the  nerves  of  the  bod}', 
we  should  see  that  there  are  motions  and  mechanisms  which 
transcend  the  mere  external  likeness  and  habitation  of  life, 
and  should  know  by  solemn  experience  that  our  organiza- 
tion is  an  imperishable  truth  that  derides  the  grave  of  the 
body." 

The  formation  of  the  spirit-hand  has  been  watched  under 
conditions  scientific,  though  as  yet  limited  to  the  experience 
of  a  few.  In  the  Banner  of  Lights  of  August  3,  1878,  Mr. 
Austin  A.  Burnham,  of  Chagrin  Falls,  Ohio,  gives  an  ac- 
count of  eighteen  sittings  which  he  had  in  the  summer  of 
1875  with  the  Bangs  Sisters,  one  fifteen  years  old  and  the 
other  eleven,  at  their  home  in  Chicago.  During  the  first 
four  sittings  no  hands  appeared,  but  musical  instruments 
were  played  on,  and  there  was  slate-writing  —  all  under  the 
table.  During  the  next  six  sittings  beautifully  formed 
white  hands  were  thrust  upward  through  the  aperture  of 
the  table,  showing  that  they  were  guided  hy  an  intelligent 
power.  During  the  next  eight  sittings  different-sized  hands 
and  arms  of  both  whites  and  Indians  were  projected  (often 
simultaneously)  from  the  aperture. 

An  interesting  feature  was  the  gradual  formation  of  a 
spirit-hand.  A  slender  white  cylinder,  about  three  inches 
in  length  and  one-eighth  inch  diameter,  resembling  a  com- 
mon wax  lighting- taper,  was  thrust  upward  through  the 
aperture.  At  the  next  sitting  tM;o  C3'linders  were  displa3^ed, 
each  the  same  size  as  the  first.  At  the  next  sitting  three 
cylinders  were  shown,  about  the  diameter  of  an  ordinary 
lead-pencil,  at  first  perfectly  rigid,  and  seeming  to  adhere 
one  to  another.  These  however  soon  became  flexible,  and 
on  close  inspection  were  found  to  be  spirit-fingers,  with 
perfect  joints  and  tiny  nails.      On  the  next  evening  "  a 


198  PHENOMENAL  PROOFS. 

complete  and  finel}^- formed  spirit-hand  was  presented, 
which  had  developed  to  matnrit}-  before  our  eyes  from  the 
little  spindles  of  refined  matter  that  our  senses  had  first 
perceived.  It  was  a  demonstration  that  knowledge  and 
power  have  been  given  to  the  spirit  in  its  supermundane 
existence  to  exercise  such  control  over  the  molecular  forces 
of  the  universe  as  to  arrange  matter  in  harmonious  forms, 
and  endow  the  same  with  intellectual  life."* 

Dr.  F.  L.  H.  Willis,  who  was  at  one  time  a  medium  for 
physical  manifestations,  to  which  I  have  referred  on  page 
142,  writes,  Ma}^,  1879,  in  regard  to  his  own  medial  ex- 
periences :  "  It  is  twenty-three  3^ears  ago  that  these  mate- 
rializations of  hands  occurred.  Did  they  not  occur  under 
the  great  law  of  form-materialization  that  has  been  oper- 
ative through  all  the  ages  from  the  days  older  than  Abra- 
ham, who  had  three  full  form-materializations  at  one  time 
in  his  tent  upon  the  plains  of  Mamre,  down  to  the  mate- 
rialization of  Moses  and  Elias  upon  the  mount  in  Judea  ? 
And  if  a  hand,  or  even  a  finger,  can  be  materialized,  can 
the  workings  of  the  law  be  limited  to  that,  so  that  it  shall 
be  pronounced  impossible  for  the  full  form  to  stand  out  in 
the  perfection  of  human  proportions  ?  Is  not  the  one  the 
sure  prophecy  of  the  other  ?  " 

Trul}'  I  see  no  wa}-  of  answering  this  question  except  by 
admitting  that  the  spirit-hand  makes  possible  the  full-form 
manifestation,  appropriately  clothed.  Often  these  hands 
would  show  some  deformitj^  or  defect  b}^  way  of  identifying 
the  spirit  manifesting  ;  and  Dr.  Willis  says,  referring  to  his 
own  mediumship :  .  - 

"  On  one  occasion  a  gentleman  present  drew  a  knife  from 
his  pocket  with  a  long,  keen  blade,  and  taking  no  one  into 
his  counsel,  watching  his  opportunity,   pierced  with  a  vio- 

*  The  author  has  himself  both  seen  and  felt  the  spirit-hand  repeatedly  under 
conditions  that  seemed  to  preclude  both  imposture  and  hallucination.  He  haa 
also  seen  the  hand  write  messages,  indicating  clairvoyant  power. 


THE   SriRIT-BODT.  199 

lent  blow  one  of  the  psj^cliic  hands.  The  medium  uttered 
a  shriek  of  pain.  The- sensation  was  precisel}"  as  if  the 
knife  had  passed  through  his  hand.  The  gentleman 
sprang  to  his  feet  exultant,  thinking  he  had  made  a  most 
triumphant  expose  of  trickery,  and  fully  expected  to  find  the 
medium's  hand  pierced  and  bleeding.  To  his  utter  chagrin 
and  amazement  there  was  no  trace  of  a  scratch  even  upon 
either  hand  of  the  medium  ;  and  3'et  to  him  the  sensation 
was  precisely  as  if  the  knife  had  passed  through  muscle  and 
tendon,  and  the  sensation  of  pain  and  soreness  remained 
for  hours. 

"  On  another  occasion  a  gentleman  was  present  who, 
a  3'ear  before,  had  lost,  as  he  supposed  forever,  a  beloved 
wife.  He  had  no  faith  in  immortalit}^  and  to  him  death 
was  indeed  the  blackness  of  an  endless  night,  and  the  grave 
an  abyss  that  had  swallowed  forever  his  most  precious 
treasure.  A  hand  was  formed  and  placed  in  his,  and  he 
started  with  the  exclamation  in  thrilling  tones  of  '  Oh,  my 
God  ! '  and  burst  into  tears.  He  recognized  the  hand  of 
his  wife,  and  felt  upon  two  of  the  fingers  facsimiles  of  the 
betrothal  and  marriage  rings  he  had  placed  thereon." 

Augustine  Calmet,  author  of  the  well-known  "  Dictiona- 
ry of  the  Bible,"  was  born  near  Commerc}^,  in  France,  in 
1672,  and  died  in  1757,  "  greatlj^  esteemed,"  sv^ys  the  Brit- 
ish National  CydopcEdia^  "both  for  his  learning  and  mod- 
eration." Calmet  well  knew,  what  our  modern  phenomena 
have  abundantly  confirmed,  namely,  that  spirits  can  take 
on  objective  forms  of  difi'erent  degrees  of  materialit}' ;  some 
so  attenuated  as  to  be  invisible  to  the  normal  sense  of 
mortals  ;  some,  though  still  invisible,  probably  sufficiently 
near  to  the  material  to  have  caused,  in  our  da}^  an  im- 
pression on  the  photographer's  sensitive  plate,  which  it  is 
well  known  will  be  impressed  by  objects  not  visible  to  the 
human  sense  ;  and  some  that  can  be  seen  only  b}^  persons 
in  a  state  of  high  clairvo^^ance.  The  proof  is  in  the  follow- 
ing passage  from  Calmet : 

"  It  is  necessary  to  study  and  distinguish  the  apparitions 
during  sleep  from  those  that  appear  during  your  wakeful 


200  PHENOMENAL   PROOFS. 

state ;  —  stuclj^ing  apart,  also,  those  apparitions  in  solid 
bodies,  that  talk  and  walk  and  eat  and  drink,  and  the  same 
with  regard  to  those  that  appear  as  nebulous  and  airy." 

Here  it  is  evident  that  the  great  fact  of  materialization 
was  known  to  the  erudite  author  of  "  The  Dictionary  of  the 
Bible  ;  "  and  he  also  justifies  the  belief  of  the  lower  races  in 
"a  filmy  body  "  for  the  spirit,  by  showing  that  the  spirit 
may  regulate  at  will  the  degree  of  molecular  attenuation  in 
his  assumed  body. 

Of  the  fact  of  materialization  to  such  a  degree  of  density 
that  the  spirit  "can  talk  and  walk  and  eat  and  drink," 
Calmet  has  evidently  no  doubt.  It  is  all  in  strict  con- 
formity with  our  present  facts,  together  with  what  is  related 
of  the  reappearance  of  Jesus.  In  the  common  phenomenon 
of  the  spirit-hand,  moved  by  intelligence,  lie  all  the  poten- 
cies of  the  full-form  manifestations.  Given  the  spirit-hand, 
and  all  the  rest  is  made  credible. 

Should  any  one  want  testimonj-  more  remote  than  that 
of  Calmet  to  the  fact  of  a  spiritual  body,  he  may  learn 
that  in  Egypt,  two  thousand  years  before  our  era,  though 
the  unknown  God  and  Lord  of  life  was  worshipped  under 
various  names  and  attributes,  the  popular  rehgion  and 
household  cultus  had  Spiritualism  for  its  basis.  In  Lon- 
don, on  the  15th  of  April,  1879,  in  a  lecture  at  Stein  way 
Hall,  Mr.  Le  Page  Renouf  (not  known  as  a  SpirituaUst) 
undertook  to  set  forth  the  results  of  the  latest  and  fullest 
researches  into  the  civilization  and  religion  of  Ancient 
Egypt.  These  results,  it  must  be  observed,  are  no  matter 
of  surmise  or  inference  from  a  few  disputed  passages  or 
obscure  texts.  Five  thousand  years  ago  the  Egyptians  left 
their  belief  written  at  large  in  all  conceivable  forms,  from 
royal  edicts  to  private  prayers  and  memoranda. 

A  principal  and  pervading  tenet  among  them  was  the 
double  nature  of  man.  Every  human  being  had  his  double, 
wraith,  or  astral  spirit,  as  much  a  part  of  him  as  his  fleshly 


THE  SPIRIT-BODY.  201 

frame — "  at  times,  and  in  certain  conditions,  independently 
visible  and  palpaUe."  The  Egj^ptian  iiame  for  this  was 
Kar,  a  word  exactly  corresponding  to  the  Latin  imago  and 
the  Greek  eidojlov.  Through  this  m3'stic  companion,  sep- 
arate individual  existence  was  continued  and  carried  on 
after  the  dissolution  of  earth- life,  and  the  communication 
with  it  by  survivors  formed  the  greater  part  of  that  ances- 
tral worship  and  reverence  for  the  dead  that  so  remarkably 
distinguished  Egj^Dtian  social  life.  Possession  and  obses- 
sion were  familiar  and  recognized  phenomena,  and  scien- 
tifically dealt  with.  In  the  Ishtar  tablets  (B.  C.  2250) 
there  is  a  glimpse  of  materialization  in  the  line:  "The 
spirit  of  Heabani,  like  glass,  transparent  from  the  earth 
arose." 

Among  physicists  the  question  wJiat  is  matter?  will  be 
answered  in  different  waj's,  according  to  their  afSnit}'  with 
this  or  that  school  of  thought.  Strict  materialists,  like 
Biichner,  Haeckel,  and  Vogt,  prefer  an  expression  which 
will  not  credit  matter  with  any  spiritual  potenc}^  whatever. 
They  would  ha^'e  it  appear  that  mind  is  derived  from  the 
mechanical  action  of  purely  material, atoms  —  not  the  soul- 
atoms  of  Democritus,  nor  the  monad  of  Leibnitz,  nor  the 
mind-stuff  of  Professor  W.  K.  Clifford  —  but  something  in 
which  there  is  neither  life  nor  the  promise  of  life.  The  con- 
sideration that  thinking  cannot  be  a  property  of  matter, 
unless  the  conception  of  matter  be  so  enlarged  that  it  no 
longer  answers  the  purposes  of  the  atheistic  hypothesis, 
has  no  weight  with  these  extremists. 

To  both  classes  of  minds  the  crowning  phenomenon  of 
Spiritualism,  the  full-form  manifestation  of  a  human  figure, 
with  appropriate  clothing,  all  improvised  apparently  out  of 
nothingness,  is  a  scandal  and  an  impossibilitj^ ;  something 
too  incredible  for  any  amount  of  human  testimony  to  yeriiy. 
Equally  incredible  to  them  are  the  phenomena  of  levitation, 
pneumatograph}^,  and  the  independent  movement  of  objects. 


202  PHENOMENAL   PROOFS. 

But  all  these  phenomena,  which  to  the  average  scientific 
conception  are  in  direct  violation  of  the  laws  of  nature, 
are  in  truth  attributable  to  the  intervention  of  higher  laws 
which  do  not  at  all  contravene  any  natural  law,  but  which, 
being  unknown,  assume  in  popular  estimation  the  rank  of 
magical  miracles. 

Thus  the  levitation,  or  lifting,  of  a  human  being,  which  I 
have  often  witnessed,  though  abundantly  confirmed  in  Cath- 
olic annals,  is  pronounced  absurd  because  it  is  a  violation 
of  the  law  of  gravitj^  And  when  we  reply,  "  Nay  !  it  is 
in  no  sense  a  violation  ;  an  invisible,  impalpable  power  is 
at  work,  and  causes  the  lifting,"  we  are  told  by  the  phy- 
sicist, who  trusts  to  his  "  deductive  reasoning,"  that  we 
are  "the  victim  of  a  prepossession,"  or,  as  Carpenter  ex- 
presses it,  "  have  surrendered  our  common  sense  to  a  dom- 
inant idea." 

Saint  Theresa,  a  nun  in  a  convent  in  Spain,  was  often 
raised  into  the  air  in  the  sight  of  all  the  sisterhood.  Lord 
Orrery  and  Mr.  Valentine  Greatrak  both  informed  Henry 
More  and  Joseph  Glanvil  that  at  Lord  Cornway's  house,  at 
Raglej^,  in  Ireland,  a  gentleman's  butler,  in  their  presence 
and  in  broad  daylight,  rose  into  the  air  and  floated  about 
the  room  above  their  heads.  Butler,  in  his  "  Lives  of  the 
Saints,"  sa3's  that  man}'  such  facts  are  related  b}'  persons 
of  undoubted  veracity,  who  testify  that  they  themselves  were 
eye-witnesses  of  them. 

The  Rev.  Wm.  Fishbough,  of  New  York,  a  veteran  in 
the  cause  of  Spiritualism,  writes  (Jul}',  1876,)  :  "To  my 
own  positive  knowledge,  based  upon  an  actual  occurrence, 
these  materializations  can  take  place  without  a  cabinet,  or 
any  other  medium  than  mj'self,  and  that,  too  in  the  pri- 
vate solitude  of  m}"  own  chamber." 

Charles  Bonnet  (1720-1793)  the  great  Swiss  naturalist, 
believed  that  man's  future  body  exists  already  with  the 
body  visible  ;  and  he  believed  that  science  would  some  day 


THE   SPIRIT-BODY.  203 

have  instruments  which  would  enable  it  to  detect  this  bod}^, 
formed  as  it  probablj-  is  of  the  elements  of  ether  or  of  light. 

"  Let  us  distrust,"  sajs  Chasera}",  "  our  imperfect  senses, 
since  there  are  so  many  substances  which  we  can  neither 
feel  nor  see.  Let  us  not  be  precipitate  in  denying  the  dual- 
ity of  the  human  being  because  the  scalpel  of  the  anatomist 
cannot  reveal  to  our  sight  a  principle  eminently  subtile. 
Man  is  not  driven  to  annihilation  even  under  the  hypothe- 
sis of  materiality."  Chasera}^  thinks  that  the  spirit-body 
may  some  da}^  be  proved  by  science. 

By  its  nature  and  in  its  normal  state  the  spirit-body  is 
invisible,  and  it  has  that  property  in  common  with  many 
fluids  which  we  know  exist,  and  yet  which  we  have  never 
seen ;  but  it  can  also,  the  same  as  other  fluids,  undergo 
modifications  that  render  it  perceptible  to  the  sight,  whether 
by  a  sort  of  condensation  or  by  a  change  in  the  molecular 
disposition;  it  then  appears  to  us  under  a  vaporous  form. 
By  further  condensation  the  spirit-body  may  acquire  the 
properties  of  solidity  and  tangibiUtj^ ;  but  it  can  instanta- 
neously resume  its  ethereal  and  invisible  state. 

We  can  understand  this  state  by  comparing  it  with  that 
of  invisible  vapor,  which  can  pass  to  a  state  of  visible  fog, 
then  become  liquid,  then  solid,  and  vice  versa.  These  dif- 
ferent states  of  the  spirit-body  are  the  result  of  the  will  of 
the  spirit,  and  not  an  exterior  physical  cause,  as  in  our 


''It  is  an  extravagant  conjecture  of  mine,"  sa^'s  Locke, 
"  that  spirits  can  assume  to  themselves  bodies  of  different 
bulk,  figure,  and  conformation  of  parts."  Locke's  extrava- 
gant conjectures  are  sometimes  better  than  the  sober  hy- 
potheses of  other  philosophers. 

Science  has  to  hj'pothecate  the  intermediary  ether  to  ac- 
count for  the  passage  of  hght,  heat,  electricity,  magnetism, 
gravity,  through  space.  Why  may  we  not  quite  as  reason- 
ably hypothecate  an  intermediary,  partaking  both  of  matter 


204  PHENOMENAL  PROOFS. 

aDcl  spirit,  throiigli  which  an  Infinite  Spirit  may  act  in  con- 
trolling the  universe?  The  grounds  for  the  latter  h3'poth- 
esis  are  quite  as  ample  as  those  for  the  former ;  and  if  we 
fortif}^  it  b}^  our  admitted  facts,  we  have  a  broader  basis 
for  the  spiritual  than  for  the  accepted  material  hypothesis. 

Dr.  John  W.  Draper,  of  the  University  of  Xew  York, 
has  been  quoted  by  Professor  Tyndall  as  good  scientific 
authority.  But  in  his  "Human  Physiology,"  referring  to 
the  human  body.  Draper  remarks:  "There  animates  the 
machine  a  self-conscious  and  immortal  principle  —  the 
soul.  ...  In  the  most  enlarged  acceptation,  it  would  fall- 
under  the  province  of  physiology  to  treat  of  this  immortcd 
principle.''  Here  Dr.  Draper  plainlj'  intimates  that  there 
must  be  a  psycho-physiological  science. 

Among  modern  German  philosophers,  Baader,  Hoffman, 
Ulrici,  AVirth,  Wagner,  Fechner,  Beneke,  Dressier  teach, 
though  in  different  wa^^s,  substantially^  the  theory  of  a  spir- 
itual body.  Ulrici  believes  in  the  non-atomic  character  of 
the  soul's  organism,  describing  it  as  "a  fluid-like  substance, 
undivided,  continuous,  simple,  penetrating  all  parts  of  the 
bod}'."  Beneke  teaches  that  the  faculties  are  the  elements 
of  the  substance  of  the  soul  itself ;  that  they  are  not  inhe- 
rent in  a  substratum,  distinct  from  themselves,  inasmuch 
as  a  thing  is  onl\"  the  sum  of  its  own  combined  forces. 
Wagner  believes  in  an  "  individual,  permanent,  psychical 
substance."  Baader,  Franz  Hoffman,  and  I.  II.  Fichte 
are  in  harmon}'  with  the  teachings  of  Spiritualism  in  regard 
to  the  spiritual  hody.  As  I  have  alread}'  shown,  we  ma}- 
also  claim  the  illustrious  Kant  as  accepting  the  probabilities' 
of  an  actual  inter-communication  between  the  spirit-world 
and  ours,  in  the  remark,  "It  ma}' be  proved  3'et  that  the 
human  soul,  even  in  this  earthl}-  life,  is  in  indissolubty  con- 
nected communion  with  all  the  immaterial  existences  of  the 
spirit-world." 

Our  claiiToyants  are  unanimous  in  asserting  this  inner 


THE   SPIRIT-BODY.  205 

flnidic  organism.  Mechanical  science  gives  a  reason  for  it. 
Mr.  Gillingbam,  an  English  manufacturer  of  artificial 
limbs,  in  Chard,  Somersetshire,  argues,  from  the  lohenom- 
ena  with  which  he  has  become  acquainted  in  the  wa}'  of  his 
profession,  that  there  must  be  a  spiritual  body  co-existing 
with  the  ph3^sical.  The  sensations  often  felt  where  the 
amputated  limb  ought  to  be,  is  one  of  the  facts  he  adduces. 
And  Miiller,  in  his  Ilandbuch  der  Fhysiologie,  remarks  : 
"Professor  Valentine  has  observed  that  individuals  who 
are  the  subjects  of  congenital  imperfection,  or  absence  of 
the  extremities,  have,  nevertheless,  the  internal  sensations 
of  such  limbs  in  their  perfect  state." 

"If,"  says  Miss  A.  B.  Blackwell,  "  we  must  call  in  the 
action  of  a  refined  class  or  classes  of  matter  to  explain  the 
transmission  of  all  the  more  rapid  and  subtle  forms  of  en- 
erg3^  as  electricity  and  gravity,  then  the  supposition  that 
every  mind  may  have  a  more  permanent,  ethereal  body, 
which  mediates  between  it  and  its  grosser  organism,  cannot 
involve  a  shadow  of  scientific  absurdity.  It  even  becomes 
highly  probable." 

"We  are  logically  constrained,"  say  Stewart  and  Tait, 
in  their  "Unseen  Universe,"  "if  we  regard  the  principle 
of  continuity  and  the  doctrine  of  immortalit3^  as  both  true, 
to  admit  the  existence  of  some  frame  or  organ  not  of  this 
earth,  which  survives  dissolution";  and  thej^  add:  "It  is 
possible  that  there  have  been,  and  that  there  are,  occasional 
manifestations  of  this  spiritual  nature."  Not  only  occa- 
sional, but  very  frequent  manifestations,  it  might  be  said. 

"I  could  multiply  citations  to  infinity,"  saj^s  Guizot, 
"  proving  that  in  the  first  century  of  our  era,  the  materialit3^ 
of  the  soul  was  an  opinion  not  only  permitted  but  dominant." 

Pliny  the  3'ounger,  a  born  skeptic,  admits,  but  with  evi- 
dent reluctance,  that  phantoms  of  the  dead  reappear  to 
man,  and  that  events  occur  prophetic  of  an  inevitable 
doom,  which  wise  men  might  sometimes  interpret  correctly v 


206  PHENOMENAL   PROOFS, 

Mr.  T.  P.  Barkas,  of  Newcastle-on-Tjne,  a  scientific 
investigator  with  whom  I  have  had  some  correspondence, 
writes,  May  3,  1875  : 

"I  have  experimented  and  investigated  under  every 
kind  of  reasonable  test  that  my  ingenuit3^  could  devise  ;  in 
my  own  private  rooms,  in  the  private  rooms  of  personal 
friends,  in  public  rooms,  and  in  the  private  rooms  of  me- 
diums. I  have  examined  the  rooms  with  utmost  care ; 
have  personall}-  fitted  up  the  recesses  for  the  reception  of 
mediums  ;  have  personally  provided  every  thing  connected 
with  the  seances,  and  am  certain  that  no  arrangement  for 
trick  was  in  the  room.  I  have  tied,  sealed,  nailed,  and 
held  the  mediums  in  almost  ever}^  possible  manner.  I  have 
undressed  the  medium,  and  re-dressed  him  in  clothes  of  my 
own  providing.  And  notwithstanding  all  tests  and  all 
precautions,  phenomena  have  taken  place  that  are  utterly- 
inexplicable  by  reference  to  any  known  x)hysical  or  psjxho- 
logical  law.  All  this  I  have  done  with  the  cold  eye  and 
steady  pulse  of  a  scientist.  I  am  prepared  to  give  £100  to 
any  man  or  woman  who  by  trick  can  produce  similar  phe- 
nomena under  similar  conditions." 

Again  he  writes :  ' '  The  phenomena  appeal  not  to  one 
sense  mereh',  but  to  all  the  senses.  Sight,  hearing,  smell, 
taste,  and  touch  are  all  called  into  requisition  during  the 
course  of  our  stances.  Mesmeric  subjects  can  be  placed 
tinder  illusion,  but  when  relieved  from  the  Influence  of  the 
operator  they  are  conscious  of  the  change  ;  such  is  not  the 
case  at  seances  ;  the  sitters  are  not  conscious  of  having 
been  under  smj  influence  whatever." 

Mr.  Barkas  gives  an  account  (May  14,  1875)  of  some 
remarkable  seances  with  the  bo}^,  William  Pett}^,  under 
perfect  test  conditions.  The  boy  stripped  himself  abso- 
lutely naked.  He  was  then  re-dressed  in  dark  clothes 
which  Mr.  Barkas  had  provided.  Not  a  white  or  light 
article  of  any  kind  was  there  on  the  lad's  person.  Mr. 
Barkas  had  himself  provided  the  cabinet ;  excluding  every 
thing  that  had  the  appearance  of  whiteness.     Under  these 


THE   SPIRIT-BODY.  207 

conditions,  a  figure  draped  in  white,  about  four  feet  high, 
came  out,  moved  about  the  room,  and  cut  from  its  gar- 
ments a  piece,  seven  inches  by  two  and  an  eighth,  which 
was  found  to  be  very  white  lawn.  There  were  present  two 
ladies  and  seven  gentlemen,  who  were  willing,  if  required, 
to  authenticate  this  statement. 

In  the  London  Spiritualist  of  March  7,  1879,  will  be 
found  an  account  by  Mr.  John  Mould,  of  Newcastle-on- 
Tjme,  of  the  sawing  of  a  piece  of  flooring  deal,  twenty 
inches  long,  six  inches  wide,  and  five-eighths  of  an  inch 
thick.  An  ordinary  hand-saw  was  used  ;  Miss  Wood  was 
the  medium,  and,  as  she  had  been  once  charged  with 
fraud,  the  conditions  were  made  perfect,  she  being  in  full 
sight  of  the  spectators  and  known  not  to  have  moved. 
After  describing  the  success  of  the  phenomena,  Mr.  Mould 
says:  "I  unhesitatingl}^  affirm,  after  a  persistent  investi- 
gation of  nearly  six  3'ears,  —  which  means  attendance,  on 
an  average,  of  two  sittings  weekly  at  nearly  six  hundred 
seances, — that  the  statements  I  have  just  made  are,  in  my 
judgment,  statements  of  fact,  however  antecedently  im- 
probable they  may  appear."  Mr.  Mould  considers  the  two 
theories  in  explanation  of  the  problem :  one  that  of  the 
activity  of  a  spirit  external  to  the  medium,  and  the  other, 
of  which  he  remarks:  "Assuming  the  phenomena  to  be 
produced  by  the  soul  of  the  medium  making  a  sortie  out  of 
its  dark  cottage,  the  fact  of  action  at  a  distance  is  the  un- 
foldment  of  a  possibility  making  a  future  life  at  least  more 
conceivable,  and  to  that  extent  is  a  light,  and  therefore 
more  likel}^  to  influence  our  ideas  on  a  future  life  than  if 
we  had  no  light  at  all." 

Dr.  J.  M.  Gully,  formerly  of  Great  Malvern,  England, 
a  thoroughly  experienced  physician  and  a  careful  investi- 
gator, wrote  me,  under  date  of  July  20,  1874:  "To  the 
special  question  which  yon  put  regarding  ni}^  experiences 
of  the  materialization  of  the  spirit-form  with  Miss  Cook's 


208  PHENOMENAL   PROOFS. 

mediumship,  I  must  repl^^,  that  after  two  j-ears'  examina- 
tion of  the  fact  and  numerous  seances,  I  have  not  the 
smallest  doubt,  and  have  the  strongest  conviction,  that 
such  materialization  takes  place,  and  that  not  the  slightest 
attempt  at  trick  or  deception  is  fairly  attributable  to  an}^ 
one  who  assisted  at  Miss  Cook's  seances." 

From  the  facts  here  brought  together,  it  may  be  inferred 
that  the  spirit-bod}'  is  not  a  mere  hj^pothesis  :  it  is  proved 
,  b}^  the  phenomena  and  the  inductions  of  Spiritualism ;  by 
the  objective  appearance  of  spirits  themselves  in  extempo- 
rized bodies  ;  by  the  testimou}^  of  clairvoj^aiits  who  can 
see  spirits,  and  hy  the  testimony  of  the  spirits,  who  claim 
not  onl}"  a  siiper-ethereal  organism,  human  in  its  form,  but 
the  power  of  assuming  visible  bodies  like  those  which,  at 
different  stages  of  the  earth-life,  they  had  while  here ;  by 
the  phenomena  of  somnambulism  and  clairvoyance  giving 
evidence  of  spiritual  senses,  for  as  the  bodilj"  senses  imply 
tJiei?^  object,  so  do  the  spiritual  senses  imply  theirs,  and  are 
prophecies  of  an  endless  life ;  hy  all  the  analogies  which 
reason  and  experience  supply ;  and  hy  the  belief  of  men  in 
all  ages  and  climes  —  a  belief  founded  on  the  actual  reap- 
pearance of  deceased  relatives  and  friends. 

Add  to  these  considerations  the  facts  of  a  manifold  con- 
sciousness, pointing  to  a  complex  but  unique  organism  ; 
also  the  marvels  of  memor}^,  in  which  faculty  impressions 
inhere  and  persist  which  are  inexplicable  under  the  theory 
of  materialism,  involving  as  it  does  a  constant  flux  and 
removal  of  the  molecules  of  the  organs  of  thought.  Only 
the  existence  of  a  spiritual  body  can  account  for  these 
things  ;  though  I  am  aware  this  has  been  denied. 

The  anthropological  conception,  for  which  I  am  indebted 
to  the  facts  of  spiritualism,  is  that  of  a  trichotomy  of 
physical  bod}',  spirit-body  (or  soul),  and  spirit,  —  a  trinity 
of  principles,  physical,  psycho-physiological,  and  spiritual, 
all  proceeding  from  the  Infinite  Force,  but  the  last,  like 


THE   SPIRIT-BODY.  209 

God  himself,  inscrutable.  In  this  notion  I  am  supported 
b}^  the  belief  of  the  earl}'  Christians,  as  it  appears  in  their 
writings  up  to  the  fourth  century.  I  also  have  the  concur- 
rence of  Lord  Bacon,  who  says:  "Two  different  emana- 
tions of  souls  are  manifest  in  the  first  creation  :  the  one 
(the  rational  soul,  or  the  spirit,)  proceeding  from  the 
breath  of  God ;  the  other  (the  sensitive  soul,  or  spirit- 
body,)  from  the  elements."  The  spirit,  he  tells  us,  is  sci- 
entilically  incognizable  ;  but  the  sensitive  soul  (spirit-body) 
whose  "substance  even,"  he  tells  us,  "may  be  justly  in- 
quired into,"  must  be  allowed  "a  corporeal  substance, 
attenuated  by  heat  and  rendered  invisible,  as  a  subtle 
breath,  or  aura,  of  a  flamy  and  airy  nature  (electro- 
luminous)  ,  and  diffused  through  the  whole  bodj^"  * 

Such  is  not  only  the  early  Christian  belief,  but  such,  so 
far  as  relates  to  the  spirit-bod}^,  is  the  so-called  animism 
of  the  barbarous  tribes.  It  is  consistent  also  with  the 
views  of  both  Plato  and  Aristotle.  In  the  progress  of 
philosophical  speculation  this  simple  idea,  explaining  so 
many  of  the  phenomena  that  have  |)uzzled  mataphysicians 
as  to  how  an  immaterial,  unextended  principle  can  act 
upon  a  physical  bod}',  was  superseded  by  a  doctrine  which 
identified  spirit-body  and  spirit  in  substance,  and  distin- 
guished them  only  in  function.  Aquinas,  and  after  him 
Calvin,  pronounced  in  favor  of  this  dualistic  rendering ; 
but  it  was  chiefly  through  the  influence  of  Descartes  that 
the  belief  in  a  psychical  organism  or  spirit-bod}^,  distinct 
from  the  physical,  was  ruled  out  of  philosophy,  literature, 
and  religion.  Then  began  to  arise  the  clamor,  still  kept 
up,  against  the  "gross  materialism"  of  the  Pauline  doc- 
trine of  a  spiritual  body ;  and  hence  the  scornful  defama- 
tion of  Spiritualism  as  being  a  worse  materialism  than  that 
which  it  would  displace. 

*  The  passages  in  parenthesis  here  are  not  in  Bacon's  text. 

14 


210  PHENOMENAL    PROOFS. 

The  rejection  bj-  Descartes  of  the  notion  of  two  emana- 
tions of  souls,  a  sensitive  (spirit-bod}')  and  a  rational 
(spirit),  compelled  him  to  confound  the  two  principles; 
but  this  he  could  not  do  without  making  the  onl^^  soul  left 
an  indefinable,  abstract  principle,  having  neither  extension, 
form,  nor  conceivable  substance.  Thus  he  could  give  us 
no  assurance  of  the  continuous  life  of  man ;  he  destroj^ed 
the  etj^mological  signification  of  the  word  immortal  (not 
dying)  ;  and  he  referred  us  to  revelation  alone  for  our 
grounds  of  belief  in  a  future  state.  In  all  this  he  was  a 
retrograde  teacher ;  he  reversed  the  wisdom  of  the  past ; 
he  fortified  the  unscientific  doctrine  of  a  resurrection  of 
the  phj'sical  body  ;  and  he  blinded  theologians  and  philos- 
ophers generall}^  to  the  import  of  the  great  fact  announced 
b}^  Paul,  that  there  is  not  only  a  natural  but  a  spiritual 
bodj'. 

The  attempt  to  reconcile  with  the  opinion  that  the  soul 
pervades  our  whole  i^hysical  organization,  the  Cartesian 
notion  that  there  is  no  extended  ps3xhical  entit}-,  —  that 
the  mind  (which  Descartes  makes  the  only  soul)  has  no 
substratum  for  inherence,  — has  been  the  despair  and  con- 
fusion of  philosoph}'  up  to  this  time.  I  have  already 
instanced  the  eminent  contemporary  philosophers  in  Ger- 
many who  have  rejected  or  supplemented  the  Cartesian 
theorj^  Thej^  have  postulated  a  continuity  of  life,  made 
possible  b}'  the  presence  of  a  principle  in  the  human  organ- 
ization, occult  and  impervious  to  the  scalpel,  but  actual, 
like  the  potency  of  the  chrysalis  in  the  worm.  Philosophers 
like  Fichte  and  Hofi'man  were  first  attracted  by  Spiritual- 
ism because  thej^  had  independently  arrived  by  their  own 
inductions  and  deductions  at  the  fundamental  doctrine  it 
corroborates. 

The  Spencerian  philosoph}',  as  expounded  by  Mr.  John 
Fiske,  who  gives  to  it  the  epithet  cosmic^  adheres  to  the 
Cartesian  notion  of  the  soul.     Indeed,  Mr.  Spencer  lolcl 


THE   SPIRIT-BODY.  211 

Professor  Gunning  that  he  rejected  Spiritualism  on  a  priori 
grounds,  by  which  he  doubtless  meant  that  he  regarded 
certain  preconceptions  of  his  own  on  the  subject  as  having 
the  force  of  axioms.  But  there  are  signs  that  the  more 
scientific  German  philosophy  is  destined  to  reinstate  the 
PauKne  doctrine  of  a  spiritual  hody. 

I  have  before  me  an  American  volume  *  of  recent  date, 
in  which  the  author,  Dr.  Walter,  carrying  out  the  views  of 
I.  H.  Fichte  and  Ulrici,  ably  combats  the  rehgious  and 
metaphj'sical  objections  to  the  doctrine  of  the  soul's  exten- 
sion. In  his  language,  let  it  be  understood,  soul  covers 
the  whole  region  of  mind,  and  he  at  times  uses  the  word 
indiscriminatel3\  He  makes  no  sign  that  he  accepts  the 
phenomena  of  Spiritualism.  His  arguments  are  mainly 
metaphj^sical,  and  not  physiological.     He  says  : 

"  The  assertion  that  the  soul  is  not  extended  is  exactly 
balanced  by  the  no  more  dogmatic  assertion  that  the  soul  is 
extended.  To  conceive  of  the  soul  as  coextensive,  and  in 
union,  with  the  whole  nervous  s^'stem,  is  no  more  difficult 
than  to  conceive  of  it  as  unextended  and  confined,  or  not, 
to  a  particular  part ;  and  certainl}^  much  less  diflflcult  than 
to  conceive  of  it  as  unextended  and  j^et  in  immediate  con- 
nection with  all  parts." 

He  tells  us  that  to  attribute  extension  to  mind  is  indeed 
ascribing  to  Spirit  a  property  of  Body ;  but  to  have  one 
propert}^  in  common  is  not  identity.  Space  is  extended, 
and  in  that  respect  is  like  matter,  and  yet  certainly  is  not 
matter.  The  two  existences  are  still  substantiall}^  different. 
If,  then,  between  mental  and  material  substances,  both 
being  considered  as  having  extension,  as  great  difierence 
exists  as  between  space  and  matter,  why  should  the  fas- 
tidious Cartesian  be  disturbed  ?  The  two  ma}"  possess  one 
common  attribute,  but  it  cannot  make  them  the  same.     It 

*  "The  Perception  of  Space  and  Matter,  by  Rev.  John  Estep  Walter,  Prin- 
cipal of  the  Classical  and  Scientific  Institute,  Mt,  Pleasant,  Pa.  Boston :  Estea 
&  Lauriat,  1879." 


212  PHENOMENAL   PROOFS. 

neither  materializes  mind  nor  spiritualizes  matter,  but 
leaves  them  as  radical^  distinct  as  could  be  desired. 

There  are  a  number  of  well-known  facts  pertaining  to 
the  growth  and  generation  of  the  lower  animals,  which  Dr. 
Walter  instances  as  strongl}^  corroborating  this  doctrine  of 
pts^X'hical  extension.  If  the  polj'pe  or  certain  ring- worms 
be  cut  into  pieces,  each  of  the  i^ieces  will,  in  a  brief  time, 
develop  into  a  complete  organism  like  the  original  whole. 
This  fact  seems  to  i)ut  it  beyond  question  that  the  sensitive 
principle  of  the  original,  undivided  organism  extends  to  all 
its  parts. 

Philosophers,  who  oppose  the  doctrine  of  ps}'chical  ex- 
tension, at  the  same  time  make  admissions  which  favor  it. 
Sir  William  Hamilton  tells  us  that  "the  first  condition  of 
the  possibility  of  an  immediate,  intuitive,  or  real  percep- 
tion of  external  things,  which  our  consciousness  assures  us 
that  we  possess,  is  the  immediate  connection  of  the  cogni- 
tive principle  with  every  part  of  the  corporeal  organism." 

Mansel  saj^s  of  the  soul  that  it  "must  be  regarded  as 
present  in  all  the  sensitive  organs  alike."  He  also  has  this 
remarkable  sentence:  "  Sensation  is  not  an  affection  of 
mind  alone,  nor  of  matter  alone,  hut  of  an  animated  or- 
ganism^ i.  e.,  of  mind  and  matter  united."  What  does 
such  an  utterance  amount  to,  if  not  to  a  recognition  of  a 
spirit-body  as  a  necessary  nexus  between  spirit  and  earth- 
bodj'?     And  A^et  Mansel  is  a  Cartesian. 

President  Noah  Porter  affirms  that  the  soul  "  occupies," 
^^pervades,"  "animates,"  is  "united  with,"  and  "con- 
nected with "  the  extended  sensorium  or  organism ;  that 
' '  in  sensation  proper  the  soul  knows  itself  as  united  with 
the  extended  sensorium." 

"Thus  it  seems  perfectly  clear,"  says  Dr.  Walter  (to 
whom  I  am  indebted  for  these  quotations),  "  that  the  Ham- 
iltonian  theory  of  the  perception  of  the  extended  impera- 
tively requires  that  the  soul  be  extended ;  and  that  for  its 


THE   SPIRIT-BODY.  213 

advocates  to  deny  extension  is  to  make  their  theory  a 
superstructure  without  a  foundation,  —  a  puerile  assump- 
tion. .  .  .  Why  the}^  or  any  thinliers,  after  they  have  ex- 
plicitl}'  taught  that  the  mind  pervades,  or  is  in  immediate 
connection  with,  all  parts  of  the  extended  bodily  organism, 
should  find  any  difficulty  in  accepting  the  proposition  that 
the  soul  is  extended,  is  wholl_y  incomprehensible." 

The  convictions  of  seers,  mediums,  and  intuitionahsts 
generalh',  in  favor  of  a  spiritual  organism  involving  the 
universal  presence  of  the  mind  in  the  physical  bod}^  ma}^ 
be  fairly  accepted  as  confirming  the  philosophical  views  of 
Ulrici,  Walter,  Hoff'man,  and  others  on  this  particular  sub- 
ject, and  are  an  earnest  that  the  Cartesian  dogma  has  had 
its  day,  and  must  soon  give  way  to  the  re-establishment  of 
the  old  Pauline  doctrine,  as  affirmed  b}^  Spiritualism. 
Thus  does  the  most  advanced  i:)hilosophical  analysis  come 
to  the  support  of  the  great  generalization  from  our  facts, 
that  there  is  in  man  a  ps^xhical  organism,  released  from 
the  phj^sical  by  death,  and  carrjing  the  guaranty  not  onlj^ 
of  his  continuous  life,  but  of  his  unimpaired  individuahty 
in  all  its  essentials. 

"Even  here  in  this  life,"  says  Cud  worth,  "-our  bod^^  is, 
as  it  were,  twofold,  interior  and  exterior;  we  having,  be- 
sides the  grossly  tangible  bulk  of  our  outward  bod}^,  another 
interior  spiritual  bod}',  which  latter  is  not  put  into  the 
grave  with  the  other." 

"  The  soul,"  says  Lavater,  "  on  leaving  its  earthly  frame 
is  immediately  clothed  in  a  spiritual  frame  withdrawn  from 
the  material.  The  soul  itself,  during  its  earth-life,  perfects 
the  faculties  of  the  spiritual  body  by  means  of  which  it  will 
apprehend,  feel,  and  act  in  its  new  existence." 


214  SPIRITUAL  FACULTIES. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

MESIHEEISM.  INDUCED  S0MNA3IBULISM.  COGNATE  PHE- 
NOMENA.  MRS.  MO  WATT.  —  MISS  FANCHER. MISS  REY- 
NOLDS.  PREVISION. PROOFS    OF    SPIRITUAL    POWER. 

The  facts  of  mesmerism  are  too  well  known  to  require 
recapitulation.  Introduced  hy  Mesmer  to  the  Parisian 
world  in  1778,  the}'  were  extended  in  1784  by  Puj'segur, 
who  was  the  first  in  modern  times  to  report  the  fact  of  mes- 
meric somnambulism  and  clairvoj^ance.  In  1825  the  French 
Academy  of  Medicine  appointed  a  commission,  of  which 
Magendie,  Fouquier,  Leroux,  Husson,  and  seven  other 
eminent  physicians  were  members,  to  investigate  and  re- 
port on  the  facts.  The}^  occupied  more  than  five  years  in 
their  labors.  Their  report,  presented  in  1831,  gives  a  clear 
account  of  their  experiments.  They  were  well  guarded 
against  charlatanism  and  fraud,  for  the}'  sa}-  that  "  it  is  only 
by  a  most  attentive  examination,  the  severest  care,  and  bj^ 
numerous  and  varied  trials,  that  one  can  escape  illusion." 

They  admit  the  most  important  of  the  phenomena,  and 
sa}'  in  regard  to  clairvoyance  :  "  We  saw  two  somnambules 
w^ho  distinguished,  their  e3^es  being  closed,  the  objects 
l)laced  before  them  :  they  have  designated  without  touching 
them,  the  color  and  value  of  cards  ;  they  have  read  writ- 
ten words,  also  several  lines  of  books.  This  phenomenon 
took  place  even  when  the  opening  of  the  eyelids  was  kept 
exactl}'  closed  bj-  the  fingers." 

Cuvier,  the  great  naturalist,  admitted  the  phenomena  (in 
his  ^^  Anaiomie  Comparie"  vol.  2,  p.-  117)  ;  so  did  La- 
place (in  his  ^''  Traitc  Analytique  du  Calcul  des  Probabilites). 


INDUCED    SOMNAMBULISM.  215 

Gall,  Spurzheim,  Hahnemann,  Hufeland,  Sir  Wm.  Ham- 
ilton, and  a  long  list  of  eminent  men  of  science,  were 
also  believers  in  the  mesmeric  phenomena.  Lacordaire, 
the  famous  French  theologian  (1802-1861),  solys:  ''The 
somnambule  appears  to  know  things  which  he  was  ignorant 
of  before  his  sleep,  and  which  he  forgets  on  the  instant  of 
awaking." 

The  compound  word  somnamhulism  (sleep-walking)  is  an 
inapt  one  to  designate  the  various  phenomena  that  come 
under  it ;  but  our  present  science  has  to  use  it  in  the  ab- 
sence of  a  better  term.  As  the  phenomena  ai'e  indicative 
of  supersensual  powers  in  the  human  subject,  the}^  properly 
come  in  to  illustrate  and  confirm  the  theory  of  Spiritualism. 
My  first  acquaintance  with  the  facts  of  induced  somnambu- 
lism dates  back  to  the  year  1836.  Dr.  Collyer,  a  young 
English  physician,  happened  to  be  in  Boston,  and  gave  some 
public  experiments  in  mesmerism  at  the  Masonic  Temple. 
I  saw  enough  to  convince  me  that  they  were  not  wholly  il- 
lusorj'.  Subsequently  I  witnessed  the  experiments  of  Mr. 
Peale,  at  his  Museum  in  Broadwa^^,  New  York.  In  both 
the  subjects  I  had  seen,  the  lucidit}^  had  not  advanced  to 
that  degree  of  high  consciousness  which  seems  to  be  a  rise 
upon  that  of  the  normal  state.  Still  it  was  evident  that 
the  somnambulists  in  both  cases  were  sensitive  to  the  un- 
expressed will  of  the  mesmerizer,  and  many  curious  phe- 
nomena, indicating  a  faculty  that  could  not  be  explained 
by  materialism,  were  developed. 

In  1840  I  became  acquainted  with  Mrs.  A.  C.  Mowatt 
(1820-1869),  who  afterwards  won  distinction  on  the  stage, 
wrote  novels  and  plaj'S,  and  "The  Autobiography  of  an 
Actress,"  and,  some  3'ears  after  her  first  husband's  death, 
married  Mr.  Ritchie,  of  Eichmorid,  Va.  Dr.  Channing,  a 
bachelor  physician,  in  whose  house  on  Broadway,  New 
York,  I  had  taken  rooms,  attended  her  professionally  for 
an  affection  which   finally  resulted   in   congestion  of  the 


216  SPIRITUAL   FACULTIES. 

brain.  He  tried  the  effect  of  mesmerism  upon  her,  and 
graduallj'  she  developed  into  quite  a  remarkable  somnam- 
bule.  One  day  when  she  and  her  husband  were  at  Dr. 
C.'s  rooms  I  happened  to  be  present.  He  began  to  read 
to  her  from  one  of  his  addresses.  I  sat  near,  and  hiding 
mj'  face  with  a  pamphlet,  as  if  to  shelter  it  from  the  light, 
thought  I  would  test  the  mesmeric  theorj^  of  the  operation 
of  the  will  without  contact.  The  effect  upon  Mrs.  Mowatt 
was  almost  instantaneous.  The  balls  of  her  ej^es  rolled  up, 
and  her  e3xhds  drooped  ;  whereupon  I  suspended  the  action 
of  m}^  will  and  she  was  herself  again.  I  tried  this  several 
times  till  I  satisfied  m3^self  there  was  a  positive  effect  from 
m}-  volition,  unaided  by  any  sign,  look,  or  movement  visible 
to  the  subject.  At  last  Dr.  C,  looking  up  from  his  read- 
ing, detected  from  the  appearance  of  her  eyes  what  was 
going  on,  and  charged  me  with  it.     I  had  to  plead  guilt}'. 

Some  weeks  afterwards,  as  Mrs.  Mow^att  grew  worse, 
and  he  was  obliged  to  leave  the  city,  he  urged  me  to  take 
his  place  in  treating  her  mesmcricalty.  With  reluctance  I  ac- 
cepted the  responsibilit}',  supposing  it  would  last  only  a  few 
da3's.  Then  there  commenced  a  series  of  experiences  which 
to  me  were  new  and  interesting.  By  a  few  passes  of  m}'  hand 
without  contact  I  could  throw  her  into  what  seemed  a  pro- 
found state  of  coma,  rarely  lasting  more  than  a  minute,  from 
which  she  would  emerge  in  a  state  of  consciousness,  which, 
though  it  commanded  all  the  contents  of  her  normal  state, 
was  evidentlj^  distinct  and  superior.  Her  ej-eballs  were 
rolled  up  and  the  lids  drooped  loosely,  though  when  she 
became  animated  in  conversation  the  lids  would  close  tight- 
1}',  and  her  countenance  become  more  expressive  than  the 
open  eyes  could  have  made  it. 

That  the  subject,  through  some  josychologizing  power  in- 
dependent of  the  mesmerizer,  might  have  produced  this 
state  is  highly  probable.  We  see,  in  the  case  of  trance- 
mediams,  that  by  a  sort  of  self-magnetization  they  may  pass 


INDUCED  SOMNAMBULISM.  217 

into  a  state  of  consciousness  of  which  they  cany  no  recol- 
lection back  into  the  normal  state.  But  the  process  of 
mesmerization  by  a  second  person  is  to  some  subjects,  ac- 
cording to  their  idiosyncrasies,  an  important  prerequisite. 
They  may  at  the  same  time  be  so  constituted  as  to  exer- 
cise a  volition  quite  independent  of  the  mesmerizer  should 
he  attempt  an  influence  to  which  they  might  object.  Mrs. 
Mowatt  was  alwa3's  the  dictator  in  her  lucid  state  ;  she 
would  predict  crises  in  her  disease  with  wonderful  accu- 
racy, and  take  all  responsibilit}^  both  from  mesmerizer  and 
phj^sician  as  to  prescribing  for  her  case.  Indeed  the  phy- 
sician's office  soon  became  a  sinecure.  She,  in  her  abnor- 
mal state,  was  always  her  own  ph3^sician,  and  her  own 
despotic  ruler,  showing  absolute  confidence  in  all  her  pre- 
scriptions. 

Still  she  seemed  acutety  sensitive  to  the  mesmerizer's 
unexpressed  will,  especially  in  her  normal  state.  While 
somnambulic  she  wished  me  to  give  her  the  power  of  pass- 
ing from  her  abnormal  to  her  normal  state,  and  to  effect 
this,  directed  me  to  magnetize  her  ring,  so  that  in  my  ab- 
sence she  could,  by  pulling  it  off,  pass  into  her  usual  con- 
dition. 

Braid's  theory  that  the  phenomena  in  mesmerism  depend 
on  the  phj^sical  and  psychical  condition  of  the  patient,  and 
not  at  all  on  the  volition  or  passes  of  the  operator  throwing 
out  a  magnetic  fluid,  or  exciting  into  activity  some  mys- 
tical universal  fluid  or  medium,  may  be  true  in  much  that  it 
asserts,  but  it  is  wrong  in  much  that  it  denies.  The  sensi- 
tiveness of  the  patient  to  the  undemonstrated  volition  of 
the  operator  (a  fact  I  have  repeatedly  tested)  is  a  proof 
that  there  is  an  actual  communication  of  will-force  produc- 
ing objective  effects.  This  cannot  be  denied  by  any  expe- 
rienced student.  Mr.  Braid  found  that  he  coukl  develop 
the  mesmeric  phenomena  by  causing  a  person  to  sit  still, 
and  simply  directing  his  attention,  by  means  of  the  eyesight, 


218  SPIRITUAL   FACULTIES. 

to  some  particular  object,  as  a  lancet-case  or  a  cork ;  but 
he  leaves  out  of  consideration  entirely  the  question  how 
far  his  own  unexpressed  will  may  have  been  a  factor  in 
producing  the  result  which  he  was  expecting  and  uncon- 
sciously helping  on. 

As  for  the  assertions  of  Dr.  Hammond  and  Dr.  Beard 
that  the  phenomena  can  all  be  accounted  for  by  their  the- 
ories, of  epilepsy-,  hallucination,  &c.,  the  studies  and  ex- 
periences of  more  than  forty  years  have  convinced  me  that 
they  are  wrong.  Their  explanations  are  wholly  inapplica- 
ble to  a  case  like  that  of  Mrs.  Mowatt.  In  her  abnormal 
state  there  was  that  perfect  self-poise,  intelligence,  and  self- 
control,  which  made  the  idea  of  a  merely  morbid  develop- 
ment ridiculous.  She  seemed  to  look  down  upon  all  the 
contents  of  her  normal  memory  as  from  a  superior  position. 

If  I  put  an3'thing  hot  or  cold  in  my  mouth  she  would  at 
once  recognize  it,  unless  her  attention  was  directed  to  some- 
thing else  at  the  moment.  There  was  a  quick  s^'mpathy 
with  all  my  moods  and  physical  conditions,  and  j^et  she  was 
supremely  and  independently  conscious  all  the^  time,  and 
would  reason  upon  the  phenomena,  describe  them,  philoso- 
phize upon  them,  and  oppose  my  own  opinions  with  an  abil- 
ity far  transcending  that  which  she  exhibited  in  her  normal 
state. 

For  two  3'ears  I  had  an  opportunit}^  of  studj^ing  the  phe- 
nomena in  her  case,  almost  daily,  in  all  their  variety.  Never 
was  there  the  slightest  symptom  in  all  that  time  of  any 
attempt  at  deception.  Invariabl}',  in  her  abnormal  state, 
the  appearance  of  the  e3'es  alone  was  a  sufficient  proof  of 
the  peculiarity  of  the  condition.  Never  would  any  occur- 
rence startling  or  unusual  cause  the  eyes,  when  she  was 
somnambulic,  to  assume  their  normal  aspect.  Always  the 
eyelids  hung  loose,  with  the  balls  rolled  up,  or  else  would 
be  tightly  closed.  Her  husband  was  her  constant  attend- 
ant, and  took  an  intelligent  interest  in  the  phenomena.   But 


INDUCED   SOMNAMBULISM.  219 

the  state  of  his  health  did  not  allow  him  to  exert  the  mes- 
meric influence  himself. 

On  one  occasion,  by  her  own  direction  when  somnam- 
bulic, she  was  kept  so  two  weeks,  without  returning  once 
to  her  normal  state.  As  we  resided  quite  near  each  other 
on  Broadwa}',  I  had  frequent  opportunities  of  visiting  her. 
Her  last  recollections  in  her  normal  state  were  of  seeing 
Broadwa}^  heaped  with  snow  ;  while  a  rose-bush  on  a  stand 
in  her  parlor  had  on  it  a  bud  jxt  green.  When,  a  fort- 
night afterwards,  I  suddenly  removed  the  mesmeric  influ- 
ence, brought  her  back  to  her  natural  state,  and  led  her,  first 
to  the  window,  so  that  she  saw  that  the  piles  of  snow  had' 
disappeared,  and  then  to  the  rose-bush,  so  that  she  saw  the 
bud  had  become  a  flower,  she  —  having  no  consciousness 
whatever  of  the  lapse  of  time,  supposing  that  she  had  been 
"  asleep  "  not  more  than  an  hour  or  two  —  became  wildly 
agitated  and  almost  frantic.  I  saw  that  I  had  made  a  mis- 
take in  not  preparing  her  for  the  change.  This  I  could 
easily  have  done  by  giving  her  what  she  called  an  "  ordina- 
tion "  to  carry  the  remembrance  of  the  experiences  of  the 
last  fourteen  dtxjs  into  her  waking  state.  M}'  onl}^  resource 
was  to  iDut  m}^  hands  on  her  head  and  force  her  back  into 
her  abnormal  state.  This  I  accomplished  at  last,  after 
much  opposition  on  her  part  and  much  effort  of  volition  on 
my  own.  After  a  somewhat  prolonged  state  of  profomid 
coma,  the  well-known  change  in  her  countenance  and  the 
unconscious,  child-like  smile,  admonitorj^  of  the  coming  of 
her  second  and  higher  self,  to  whom  while  somnambulic  she 
had  given  the  name  of  the  "  gips}^,"  appeared,  and,  after  a 
breath  of  relief,  she  took  m}^  hand  and  said,  "  You  should 
have  known  better  than  to  wake  her  so  suddenh'.  You 
should  have  guessed  that  the  changes  to  which  3'ou  were  to 
introduce  her  would  bewilder  and  astound  her.  Now  put 
3'our  hands  on  her  head  and  ordain  that  she  shall  be  recon- 
ciled to  the  change,  and' take  it  as  a  matter  of  course."     I 


220  SPIRITUAL  FACULTIES. 

obeyed  the  direction,  and  the  "  simpleton,"  as  the  normal 
self  was  called,  returned  and  accepted  the  situation  as  if 
nothing  remarkable  had  occurred. 

In  her  abnormal  state  Mrs.  Mo  watt  would  always  refer  to 
her  waking  self  in  the  third  person.  She  would  be  agitated 
by  the  touch  of  any  one  except  her  husband  or  her  mesmer- 
izer,  unless  the  person  touching  her  was  previously  put  en 
rapport  with  her,  or  "in  communication,"  as  she  termed 
it,  by  the  mesmerizer.  Without  this  precaution  a  foreign 
touch  would  produce  a  painful  shuddering.  She  would 
take  no  notice  of  persons  in  the  room  until  they  had  been 
put  en  rapport  with  her. 

By  making  a  few  passes  over  the  arm  or  hand  I  could 
paralyze  the  muscles  of  voluntary  motion  and  render  the 
limb  cataleptic.  In  this  state  it  was  utterly  insensible  to 
perforation  or  incision.  In  complete  cataleps}',  as  medical 
science  tells  us,  there  is  an  absolute  suspension  of  the  func- 
tions of  the  animal  life,  while  the  processes  of  the  organic 
life  go  on  with  comparatively  little  change.  On  the  return 
of  consciousness  no  memory  is  retained  of  anything  that 
may  have  passed  during  the  paroxj^sm,  the  very  same  train 
of  ideas  returning  when  consciousness  is  restored  as  was 
present  at  the  instant  it  ceased. 

Quite  analogous  with  this  phenomenon  was  one  I  have  ex- 
perienced hundreds  of  times  in  the  case  of  Mrs.  Mo  watt. 
While  she  would  be  in  animated  conversation  and  in  the 
midst  of  a  sentence  in  her  abnormal  state,  I  would  suddenly 
wake  her.  She  would  look  around  for  a  moment  with  a 
dazed  expression,  and  then  resume  the  ordinarj^  tenor  of 
her  waking  occupations.  On  again  inducing  the  abnormal 
state  —  it  might  be  hours  or  daj^s  afterwards  —  before 
quite  regaining  the  clear  state  of  complete  somnambulic 
consciousness,  she  would  go  on  and  finish  the  sentence  in 
the  utterance  of  wliich  she  had  been  in.terrupted  long  before. 
I  never  knew  this  experiment  to  fail.     There  could  be  no 


INDUCED  SOMNAMBULISM.  221 

better  evidence  than  this  of  the  separation  between  the 
two  states  of  consciousness.  The  ophiions  she  held  in  the 
two  states  were  often  widelj^  different.  Persons  she  liked 
and  trusted  when  awake,  she  wouki  shrink  from  when  som- 
nambulic, and  vice  versa.  Her  religious  notions  were 
greatly  modified  by  the  somnambulic  impressions  which  she 
was  allowed  to  carry  into  her  waking  state. 

In  her  highest  state  of  consciousness  —  for  there  were 
different  degrees  —  she  would  claim  to  see  and  talk  with 
spirits  ;  but  finding  me  incredulous  on  the  subject,  she  did 
not  urge  it.  She  spoke  alwaj^s  of  that  circle  of  the  spirit- 
world  proximate  to  this  world  as  containing  beings  subject 
to  the  same  laws  of  progress  that  we  find  here. 

Why  should  not  this  be  true  ?  Consider  the  great  discov- 
eries of  the  last  few  centuries  ;  the  advance  in  general  cul- 
ture. Can  we  suppose  that  our  spirit  friends  and  predeces- 
sors have  been  idle  all  this  time  ;  that  they  have  lost  that 
divine  thirst  for  knowledge,  those  incentives  to  diligence 
and  activity,  which  were  necessary  for  their  happiness  while 
on  earth  ?  Is  it  probable  that  they  enter  at  once  into  the 
same  state  of  enlightenment  which  may  distinguish  those 
who  left  this  life  thousands  of  years  before  them?  It  may 
be  that  advancement  will  depend  more  on  our  moral  status 
than  on  our  intellectual  attainments  ;  but  from  all  we  can 
learn  the  correspondence  with  our  present  moral  and  mental 
activities  will  be  much  closer  than  we  are  apt  to  imagine. 
Life  will  still  be  lorogress,  and  progress  through  the  volun- 
tary exercise  of  our  own  powers,  our  own  earnestness  in  the 
piu'suit  of  truth. 

That  there  will  still  be  new  changes  and  expansions  of 
being  to  look  forward  to,  as  wonderful  and  inexplicable 
to  us  as  the  transition  of  death  is  to  us  while  here,  is  ra- 
tionally to  be  expected.  Man  may  develop  a  complex,  tri- 
une nature  in  the  next  life  as  well  as  in  this.  There  will 
always  be  a  new  goal  for  us  to  look  forward  to  and  strive 


222  SPIRITUAL   FACULTIES. 

for.  There  will  still  be  an  horizon  for  our  orderly  limita- 
tion. Therefore  the  objection  made  by  David  A.  Strauss 
that  the  prospect  of  an  endless  being  strikes  him  with  dis- 
ma}',  springs  from  a  wholty  chimerical  anticipation.  "As 
our  da}^  our  strength  will  be."  This  good  mother  nature 
will  not  desert  us,  even  in  the  next  stage  of  being.  All 
will  be  adapted  to  the  soul's  inherent  energies  and  needs. 

The  developments  now  going  on  for  facilitating  the  inter- 
course between  the  two  spheres  of  being,  are  a  proof  that 
our  spirit  brethren  are  not  inactive ;  that  among  them  are 
operative  the  same  laws  of  progress  that  make  the  moral 
and  mental  Ufe  of  mankind  on  this  planet. 

Ajnong  the  persons  I  remember  to  have  introduced  to 
Mrs.  Mowatt  while  she  was  somnambulic,  were  N.  P.  Wil- 
lis, Dr.  Mott,  and  Dr.  William  E.  Channhag,  the  great 
Unitarian  divine.  Willis,  whom  Groethe  would  have  classed 
among  Ms  "demoniac  men,"  was  deeply  interested,  and 
kept  up  an  animated  conversation  for  an  hour  or  more  with 
the  somnambule. 

Dr.  Valentine  Mott,  the  eminent  New  York  surgeon 
(1785-1865),  had  been  a  i)upil  of  Sir  Astley  Cooper,  who 
said  of  him,  "  lie  has  performed  more  of  the  great  opera- 
tions than  an}'  man  living,  or  that  ever  did  live."  Mott 
told  me  that  he  was  present,  April  8,  1829,  at  the  operation 
mentioned  in  the  Report  of  the  French  Academj^  of  Med- 
icine, 1831,  in  which  Cloquet,  the  French  surgeon  in  Paris, 
removed  an  ulcerated  tumor  from  the  breast  of  Madame 
Plantin  while  she  was  in  a  state  of  partial  catalepsy  induced 
by  mesmerism.  In  her  waking  state  she  had  manifested 
the  greatest  horror  at  having  the  operation  perfonned. 
Somnambulic,  she  spoke  of  it  with  perfect  calmness,  and 
while  the  operation  was  going  on,  which  consumed  more 
than  nine  minutes,  conversed  tranquilly  with  the  operator, 
and  did  not  exhibit  the  slightest  sign  of  sensibilit}'.  No 
movement  of  the  limbs  or  of  the  features,  no  change  in 


INDUCED   SOMNAMBULISM.  223 

the  perspiration  nor  in  the  voice,  no  emotion,  not  even  in 
the  pulse,  was  manifested - 

Learning  that  I  had  induced  somnambulism  in  Mrs. 
Mowatt,  whom  he  had  known  well  from  a  child,  Mott 
sought  an  opportunity  of 'testing  the  fact  of  phj'sical  insen- 
sibility in  her  case.  This  he  did  to  his  entire  satisfaction. 
I  made  a  few  passes  over  her  arm,  causing  rigidity.  With 
his  lancet  he  probed  the  flesh,  and  tested  her  in  various 
ways.  She  tallied  and  smiled,  giving  not  the  slightest  in- 
dication of  physical  feeling. 

The  wonderful  fact  of  discrete  degrees  of  consciousness 
is  fully  proved  in  somnambulism.  This  consciousness  may 
be  above  that  of  the  normal  state  or  below  it.  The  case  is 
on  record  of  a  pious  clergyman  who,  when  somnambulic, 
would  manifest  kleptomania.  He  would  steal  and  secrete 
articles  without  any  rational  purpose.  The  somnambulists 
who  walk  on  the  roofs  of  houses,  or  jump  out  of  windows, 
have  a  certain  consciousness,  though  it  may  be  disordered 
by  delusion.  Dr.  Pritchard  says,  "A  somnambulator  is 
nothing  but  a  dreamer  who  is  able  to  act  his  dreams." 
Insensible  to  external  phenomena,  his  functions  are  still 
obedient  to  an  inward  consciousness.  But  as  there  are 
many  degrees  of  somnambulic  consciousness,  Pritchard's 
definition  is  a  very  limited  and  misleading  one. 

In  Mrs.  Mowatt's  case  the  state  was  in  every  respect  a 
superior  one,  intellectuall}',  morally,  and,  I  may  add, 
phj'sically,  for  her  powers  of  enduring  fatigue  were  greatly 
increased.  Frequently  with  her  husband  we  would  cross 
the  river  to  Hoboken,  and  pass  hours  strolling  through  the 
beautiful  grounds.  She  would  be  in  the  somnambulic  state 
all  the  time,  wearing  a  veil  to  conceal  the  peculiar  ex- 
pression of  her  ejQB  from  passers-by.  Her  spiiits  were 
always  exalted  in  this  state,  and  she  was  full  of  vivacit}' 
and  glee.  Awake  she  would  scream  if  a  caterpillar  got  on 
her  dress.     Somnambulic  she  would  manifest  the  greatest 


224  SPIRITQAL   FACULTIES. 

tenderness  for  ever}^  living  thing,  taking  up  even  a  wounded 
snake  from  the  road,  and  placing  it  where  it  would  be  safe 
fj'oni  passing  wheels. 

■  I  have  letters  that  were  written  b}^  her  in  utter  darkness, 
and  the  chirography  is  a  great  improvement  on  that  of  her 
waking  state.  She  would  embroider  and  do  all  sorts  of 
fancy  work  in  the  dark.  She  would  predict  crises  in  her 
disease,  and  in  one  instance  I  knew  her  to  predict  a  severe 
hemorrhage  of  the  lungs  six  months  before  it  occurred, 
naming  the  very  day  and  hour.  Those  who  discredit  these 
phenomena  will  say  there  was  deception.  I  cannot  look 
back  to  the  most  trifling  incident  that  would  justifj^  the 
suspicion ;  and  j^et  I  was  so  unduly  skeptical  that  I  was 
alwaj's  on  the  lookout  for  something  that  might  raise  a 
question  of  the  reality  of  what  I  witnessed. 

I  met  her  and  her  husband  at  Lenox,  Mass.,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1842.  In  the  same  house  with  us  was  the  Rev.  Dr. 
William  Ellery  Chanuing  (1780-1842),  who  took  a  deep 
interest  in  her  case.  Both  in  her  normal  and  abnormal 
state  she  had  several  conversations  with  him.  They  dis- 
cussed Swedenborg  and  other  topics,  and  while  somnam- 
bulic she  answered  with  rare  acuteness  some  of  his  objec- 
tions to  the  great  seer's  "  memorable  relations."  At 
Channing's  request  I  mesmerized  her  for  a  dental  opera- 
tion ;  and  I  well  remember  his  getting  down  on  his  knees 
to  watch  the  expression  of  her  face  while  she  sat  in  the 
chair,  and  the  dentist  extracted  with  his  instrument  one  of 
her  lirmlj'  fixed  molars.  Chanuing  was  amply  satisfied  that 
there  was  insensibility  to  pain  in  her  case.* 


*  Mrs.  Movvatt,  though  of  a  remarkably  sensitive  constitution,  and  not 
weighing  a  hundred  pounds  when  I  first  knew  her,  was  much  benefited  by  the 
treatment  she  prescribed  for  liersclf  while  somnambulic,  and  attained  a  weight  of 
one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds.  She  died  at  Twickenham,  on  the  Thames,  in 
1809.  I  saw  her  two  days  before  her  death,  and  never  did  I  witness  such  per- 
fect, cheerful  tranquillity  as  she  manifested.  In  that  supreme  moment,  when 
death  seemed  to  have  his  hand  on  her,  her  thoughts  and  conversation  were  all 


INDUCED   SOMNAMBULISM.  225 

The  phenomena  presented  by  Miss  Fancher  resemble 
many  of  those  through  Mrs.  Mowatt ;  but  Miss  Fancher  is 
independent  of  any  mesmeric  aid,  and  her  state  of  con- 
sciousness would  seem  to  be  uniform  and  normal,  or  else 
producible  at  will.  Two  well-known  physicians  of  New 
York,  —  Wilham  A.  Hammond  and  George  M.  Beaixl, 
"  experts  in  nervous  diseases,"  —  have  attempted  to  throw 
discredit  upon  the  testimony  in  her  case.  Both  are  verj" 
absolute  in  their  repudiation  of  the  thoroughly  well-estab- 
lished fact  of  clairvoyance.  Dr.  Hammond  declai-es  that 
"  no  one  has  ever  read  unknown  writing  through  a  closed 
envelope  ; "  and  Dr.  Beard  sa3^s,  in  regard  to  the  same  sub- 
ject, "It  is  capable  of  absolute  2^^^oof  that  no  phenomena 
of  this  kind  have  ever  appeared  in  the  world  in  any  human 
creature,  in  trance  or  out  of  trance."  It  is  generalh^  the 
fate  of  error  to  be  betraj^ed  by  the  very  terms  in  which  it 
expresses  itself.  What  is  this  "absolute  proof"  offered 
us  by  Dr.  Beard?  It  is  simplj^  his  own  individual  deduc- 
tion from  certain  facts  as  construed,  or  denied,  b}^  his  own 
a  priori  intuitions.  And  we  are  seriously  called  upon  to 
accept  this  as  a  scientific  argument,  while  in  exti'avngance 
it  transcends  all  the  claims  of  all  the  trance-mediums 
themselves. 

So  far  is  it  from  being  true  that  experts  are  the  persons 
best  qualified  to  pronounce  upon  phenomena  contradicting 
their  own  confirmed  theories,  experience  shows  that  the  pre- 
conceptions of  the  expert  are  often  a  decided  hindrance  to 
the  proper  appreciation  of  the  truth.  Physicians  of  the 
highest  standmg  were  those  who  most  opposed  Harvej^, 
the  discoverer  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood.  Experi- 
enced navigators  and  geographers  were  those  who  opposed 


of  others,  not  once  of  herself.  It  was  not  faith  or  hope,  but  actual  certainty 
which  she  felt  in  regard  to  the  future.  "  The  invisible  world  with  her  had 
Bympathized."  Mary  Howitt  wrote  of  her,  "  How  excellent  In  character,  how 
energetic,  unselfish,  devoted,  is  this  interesting  woman ! " 

15 


226  SPIRITUAL   FACULTIES. 

Columbus.  It  was  Bacon  who  repudiated  the  Copernican 
sj'stem.  Those  persons  most  conversant  with  the  post-office 
were  the  last  to  approve  of  the  plan  of  uniform  penny  post- 
age. Chemists  and  ph^'sicists  were  the  experts  who  said  it 
was  impossible  to  light  cities  with  gas.  Eminent  men  of 
science  were  those  who  disbelieved  in  the  XDracticability  of 
ocean  steam-navigation. 

The  greater  any  one's  skill  and  experience  in  his  own 
special  department,-  the  more  competent  he  may  be  to 
judge  of  admitted  facts,  and  of  details  not  foreign  to  his 
professional  routine ;  but  the  more  unliliel}^  will  he  be  to 
give  a  fair  hearing  to  an}'  fact  or  phenomenon  introducing  a 
radical  change  in  his  notions  upon  a  subject  of  which  he 
imagines  he  has  a  full  mastery. 

Dr.  Hammond  declares  that  "  no  one  has  ever  read  un- 
known writing  through  a  closed  envelope."  But  here  comes 
a  whole  avalanche  of  testimony  —  not  from  Spiritualists, 
oh,  no! — but  from  some  of  the  most  eminent  ph3-sicians, 
clergymen,  and  men  of  cultm-e  in  Brooklj'n  and  New  York, 
testifying  that  Miss  Mary  J.  Fancher,  the  j)henomeiia  in 
whose  case  have  been  going  on  now  for  some  fifteen  3'ears, 
has  repeatedly  read  ' '  unknown  writing  through  a  closed 
envelope." 

Miss  Fancher  was  born  in  Attleborough,  Mass.,  August 
16,  1848,  and  was  educated  at  the  Brooklyn  Heights  Sem- 
inary, under  the  care  of  Mr.  Charles  E.  West.  In  her 
eighteenth  year  she  fell  from  a  horse,  and  had  several  ribs 
broken.  Soon  afterwards,  as  she  was  alightmg  from  a 
horse-car,  the  conductor  rang  the  bell  too  hastily,  her  dress 
caught  on  the  step,  and  she  was  dragged  for  a  block  over 
the  pavement.  Her  spine  was  badlj^  injured,  and  her  body 
and  head  were  so  frightfully  bruised,  that  she  went  into 
convulsions.     This  was  in  1865. 

She  soon  underwent  astonishing  physical  changes,  and 
has  been   bed- ridden   ever  since.     In  succession  she  was 


INDUCED   SOMNAMBULISM.  227 

bereft  of  vision,  speech,  aiid  hearing.  For  thirteen  years 
the  amount  of  food  she  took  was  hardty  so  much  as  a 
heart}^  man  could  eat  in  forty-eight  hours.  Eventual]}^  all 
efforts  to  make  her  take  nourishment  were  abandoned  by 
Drs.  Speu'  and  Ormiston.  Her  ph3'sical  condition  changed. 
One  day  all  her  senses,  except  that  of  touch,  seemed  to  be 
paralyzed ;  the  next,  she  could  hear,  and  taste,  and  talk. 
But  her  eyes  did  not  open  for  nine  years.  She  was  ver}^ 
sensitive  to  heat.  In  midwmter  her  only  covering  would 
be  a  single  sheet,  while  the  window  would  be  kept  partly 
open.  She  has  successively  lost  and  regained  several  of 
the  senses.     Mr.  "West  writes  : 

"For  many  daj^s  together  she  has  been  to  all  appear- 
ances dead.  The  slightest  pulse  could  not  be  detected : 
there  was  no  evidence  of  respiration.  Her  limbs  were  as 
cold  as  ice,  and  had  there  not  been  some  warmth  about  her 
heart,  she  would  have  been  buried.  When  I  first  saw  her 
she  had  but  one  sense  —  that  of  touch.  By  running  her 
fingers  over  the  printed  page,  she  could  read  with  equal 
facilitj^  in  light  or  darkness.  The  most  delicate  work  is 
done  %  her  in  the  night.  .  .  .  Her  power  of  clairA^03'ance, 
or  second  sight,  is  marvellously  developed.  Distance  im- 
poses no  barriers.  Without  the  slightest  error  she  dictates 
the  contents  of  sealed  letters  which  have  never  been  in  her 
hands.  She  discriminates  in  darkness  the  most  delicate 
shades  of  color.     She  writes  with  extraordinary  rapidity." 

Mr.  Henry  M.  Parkhurst,  the  astronomer,  of  173  Gates 
Avenue,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  testifies  as  follows: 

"From  the  waste-basket  of  a  New  York  gentleman 
acquaintance  he  fished  an  unimportant  business  letter, 
without  reading  it,  tore  it  into  ribbons,  and  tore  the  ribbons 
into  squares.  He  shook  the  i^ieces  well  together,  put  them 
into  an  envelope,  and  sealed  it.  This  he  subsequently 
handed  to  Miss  Fancher.  The  blind  girl  took  the  envelope 
in  her  hand,  passed  her  hand  over  it  several  times,  called 
for  paper  and  pencil,  and  wrote  the  letter  verbatim.  Tlie 
seal  of  the  envelope  had  not  been  broken.  Mr.  Parkhurst 
himself  opened  it,  pasted  the  contents  together,  and  com 


228  SPIRITUAL  FACULTIES. 

pared  the  two.     Miss  Fancher's  was  a  literal  copy  of  tlie 
original." 

Dr.  C.  L.  Mitchell,  of  129,  and  Dr.  R.  F.  Speir,  of  162, 
Montague  Street,  Brooklj^n,  both  testify  to  Miss  Fancher  s 
clairvoyance.  Dr.  R.  Ormiston  is  convinced  there  is  no 
deception  in  her  case.  The  Rev.  J.  T.  Duryea  says : 
"The  child  cannot  deceive.  How  does  she  arrange  and 
decipher  the  contents  of  a  letter  that  has  been  cut  into 
pieces  and  sealed  within  an  envelope  —  a  letter  of  the  con- 
tents of  which  those  who  gave  it  to  her  had  not  the  slightest 
notion  ?  " 

I  present  not  a  tithe  of  the  testimony  in  this  remarkable 
case.  Though  blind  and  in  darkness,  Miss  Fancher  has 
been  known  to  distinguish  the  nicest  shades  of  color  in 
worsted  before  they  were  taken  out  of  the  packets  in  which 
they  were  enclosed.  There  is  nothing  in  the  facts  foreign 
to  those  of  Spiritualism ;  but  as  having  occurred  in  the 
presence  of  non-Spiritualists  they  have  a  high  confirmatory 
value. 

In  his  book  Dr.  Hammond  says  :  "  In  the  fact  that  the 
spinal  cord  and  sympathetic  ganglia  are  not  devoid  of  men- 
tal X)Ower^  we  find  an  explanation  of  some  of  the  most 
striking  phenomena  of  what  is  called  Spmtualism."  As 
well  might  he  say,  that  in  the  fact  that  the  violin  is  not 
devoid  of  musical  pozue?',  we  have  an  explanation  of  the 
musical  genius  manifested  by  a  Paganini  or  a  Vieuxtemps. 
Not  only  the  spmal  cord  and  the  ganglia,  but  other  parts 
of  the  body  besides  the  brain,  have  been  made  apparently 
instrumental  as  conductors  of  mental  force  ;  but  what  does 
tliis  prove  if  not  that  the  mind,  in  abnormal  states  of  the 
S3' stem,  may  act  independently  of  the  brain,  thus  showing 
that  the  materialist's  theor}^,  which  regai'ds  the  brain  as 
"the  organ  that  secretes  thought,"  and  the  only  one,  does 
not  cover  the  phenomena  ?  Does  not  sight  without  phj's- 
ical  eyes  imply  thought  without  a  physical  brain  ? 


INDUCED   SOMNAMBULISM.  229 

In  a  tract  entitled,  "  The  Scientific  Lesson  of  the  Mollie 
Fancher  Case,"  Dr.  George  M.  Beard  remarks  : 

' '  Unsoiight-for  evidence  has  been  brought  to  me  from 
various  quarters  —  from  ph3'sicians  and  from  clergymen  as 
honorable  and  able  as  an}'  whose  names  have  appeared  in 
connection  v^ith  this  case  —  that  Mollie  Fancher  intentiim- 
ally  deceives  ;  that  she  lives  on  the  fat  of  the  land ;  that 
the  fanc}'  articles  she  professes  to  make  are  made  for  her  ; 
that  her  reading  without  e3'es  is  done  b}"  tricker}^ ;  but  all 
this,  like  the  evidence  on  the  opposite  side,  is  of  a  non- 
expert character,  and  can,  in  science,  receive  no  consid- 
eration." 

Could  Mrs.  Candor  herself  have  done  it  better  in  this 
attempt  to  sla}^  a  reputation  ?  Sheridan's  lady  limited  her 
scandalous  remarks  to  the  drawing-room  ;  the  doctor  sends 
his  broadcast  over  the  land  in  a  published  tract. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  he  should  be  disturbed  by  the 
strong  and  respectable  testimony  in  regard  to  phenomena 
similar  to  those  which  he  has  been  denouncing  lustilj^  for 
3^ears  as  impostures  or  delusions.  He  is  committed  to  a 
theory  which  would  dismiss  all  supersensual  facts  as  impos- 
sibilities. He  claims  to  be  qualified  as  an  expert  to  decide 
this  question  of  clairvoyance,,  but,  when  we  come  to  inquire 
into  his  qualifications,  we  find  that  they  are  mostl}^  of  the 
negative  order,  and  based,  not  on  his  acquaintance  with 
inductive  facts,  but  on  his  estimate  of  his  own  remarkable 
cleverness  at  "deductive  reasoning."  So  that  when  he 
wishes  to  j)rove  Miss  Fancher  an  impostor,  he  drops  from 
physics  into  metaphysics. 

Why  is  clairvo^^ance  untrue  ?  And  he  gives  us  to  under- 
stand that  it  is  untrue,  because  "absolutel}^  disproved  by 
deductive  reasoning,"  (that  is,  by  reasoning  from  a  priori, 
intuitive  assumptions,) — and  because  the  "special  sci- 
ences "  to  which  its  claims  must  be  referred  know  them 
"  to  be  false  without  an}^  examination"  ! 

"  Studying  the  subject  through  the  reason,"  he   says, 


230  SPIRITUAL   FACULTIES. 

"  we  know  deductively  by  the  law  of  biology  that  no  mem- 
ber of  the  human  species  can  have  any  quality  different  in 
kind  from  those  that  belong  to  the  race." 

"A  quality  different  in  kind!"  No  such  chimerical 
claim  as  that  which  Dr.  -Beard  imagines,  is  set  up  for  any 
clairvo^^ant.  There  are  some  persons  born  with  no  ear  for 
music  ;  but  here  is  Mozart,  who  at  five  years  of  age  shows 
wonderful  genius  both  as  a  composer  and  performer. 

Some  persons  are  very  dull  at  figures  ;  but  here  are  the 
boys,  Colburn,  Bidder,  and  others,  who  perform  in  a  few 
seconds  what  even  an  accomplished  accountant  would  find 
it  hard  to  do  in  a  day.  When  asked  how  he  did  it.  Bidder 
replied,  "  I  do  not  do  it,  I  see  it." 

It  is  estimated  that  ten  per  cent,  of  the  children  born 
into  the  world  are  color-blind.  Do  we  therefore  argue  that 
they  are  destitute  of  a  facult}^  which  the  rest  of  the  human 
race  possess?  Far  from  it.  We  conclude  that  the  faculty 
in  them  is  undeveloped  or  perverted,  either  through  lack 
of  attention,  or  because  of  some  derangement  of  the  visual 
organs. 

So  it  is  in  respect  to  clairvoj^ance.  The  theory  is  not, 
as  Dr.  Beard  blindly  supposes,  that  one  person  has  what 
the  rest  of  the  race  are  deprived  of.  The  real  expert  in 
ps3xhology  learns  by  his  inductive  facts,  as  well  as  b}^  his 
deductive  reasoning,  that  clairvoyance  is  a  faculty  common 
to  ever}'  human  being,  though  developed  onlj^  under  pe- 
culiar conditions.  This  is  proved  in  dreaming  and  other 
phenomena.  It  is  a  spiritual  endowment  which,  though 
latent,  undeveloped,  or  working  in  secret,  in  this  life,  is  yet 
the  foregleam  of  an  extra  sense,  which  we  m£iy  have  in  the 
next ;  for,  as  Professor  Pierce,  of  Cambridge,  remarks, 
"  There  is  no  reason  why  our  senses  should  not  be  multi- 
plied through  the  possibilities  of  the  electro-luminous  body 
which  will  be  disengaged  from  the  physical  at  death." 

So  much  for  Dr.  Beard's  wild  assertion  that  he  can  abso- 


INDUCED   SOMNAMBULISM.  231 

lately  prove  that  there  never  was  a  case  of  clairvo3^ance, 
in  trance  or  out  of  trance,  in  the  history  of  the  world ! 
His  deductive  reasoning  in  the  case  is  founded  in  a  gross 
misconception,  not  on  an  axiomatic  truth,  and  has  no  sci- 
entific force.  Clairvoyance  is  a  proof  that  our  spiritual  or 
transcendent  faculties  co-exist  with  the  normal,  even  in  the 
earth-life. 

Induction,  according  to  Watts,  is  reasoning  from  partic- 
ulars to  generals,  and  deduction  is  reasoning  from  generals 
to  particulars.  But  in  the  process  of  induction  there  may 
be  a  deductive  or  intuitional  element,  as  when  we  devise  an 
hj'pothesis,  and  bring  facts  to  justif}^  the  Inference  of  an 
alleged  law.  To  assume  that  deductive  reasoning  is  infal- 
lible is  absurd.  Histor}^  is  full  of  the  blunders  of  eminent 
men,  who  allowed  their  deductive  reason  to  discredit  real 
facts. 

Dr.  Beard  divides  the  universe  into  the  known,  the  un- 
known, and  the  supernatural ;  and  he  tells  us  that  ''  in  the 
realm  of  the  supernatural  all  things  are  possible,  and  all 
things  are  undemonstrable."  Would  it  not  be  a  little  less 
unscientific  to  say  that  no  objective  phenomena  can  be 
supernatural ;  that  what  seems  to  us  such  may  be  merely 
the  natural,  unrecognized  or  misunderstood?  What  pos- 
sible reason  has  a  man,  claiming  to  be  a  man  of  science, 
for  sa3'ing  that  ' '  in  the  realm  of  the  supernatural  all  things 
are  possible,"  when  he  does  not  even  know  of  the  existence 
of  the  supernatural? 

The  rotundity  of  the  earth  would  not  have  been  proA^ed 
to  this  da}^,  if  men  of  science  had  been  "  experts"  of  the 
type  of  Dr.  Beard,"  and  maintained  that  facts  cannot  be 
demonstrated  as  well  as  propositions,  or  that  the}'  can  be 
annihilated  by  "  deductive  reasoning."  It  is  demonstrative 
evidence  only  that  is  in  the  true  sense  scientific  ;  and  how, 
out  of  his  purel}^  negative  notions,  is  he  going  to  give  us 
any  demonstrable  x)roof  of  his  negations  ?    In  his  claim  to 


232  SPIRITUAL   FACULTIES. 

judge  of  scientific  possibilities  b}^  his  "  deductive  reason- 
ing," he  is  simply"  an  idealist  or  an  intuitionalist. 

The  late  E.  W.  Cox,  serjeant-at-law  and  President  of 
the  Ps3'chological  Society  of  Great  Britain,  but  not  at  the 
time  a  Spiritualist,  says  :  ''  I  do  not  shrink  from  the  avowal 
of  more  than  of  mere  faith  —  of  a  firm  conviction,  induced 
b}^  positive  evidence  derived  -  from  this  examination  of  the 
mechanism  of  man  at  rest  and  in  action  —  that  soul  is  a 
part  of  this  mechanism  ;  that  man  is  in  fact  a  soul  clothed 
with.abod}^;  that  for  this  soul  there  is  a  future,  and,  in 
this  future,  God." 

A  party  of  experts,  of  whom  Serjeant  Cox  was  one,  was 
l^lanned  to  test  Alexis  Didier,  of  whom  I  have  already 
given  some  account.  A  word  was  written  by  a  friend  in  a 
distant  town  and  enclosed  in  an  envelope,  without  any  of 
the  party  knowing  what  the  word  was.  This  envelope  was 
enclosed  in  six  others  of  thick  brown  paper,  each  sealed. 
The  packet  was  handed  to  Alexis,  who  placed  it  on  his 
forehead,  and  in  three  minutes  and  a  half  wrote  the  con- 
tents correctly,  imitating  the  very  handwriting.  See  '  'What 
am  I?"  by  Serjeant  Cox ;  vol.  ii.  -p.  167. 

"Fear  of  experts,"  sa3's  Dr.  Beard,  referring  to  Miss 
Fancher's  case,  "  is  one  of  the  symptoms  almost  pathogno- 
monic." But  the  real  motive  that  makes  the  sensitive  sub- 
ject sh}^  of  experimenters  who,  with  their  incredulitj-, 
bring  the  predetermination  not  to  be  convinced,  is  not  a 
fear  of  genuine  experts,  but  a  sense  of  the  folly  of  at- 
tempting to  convince  those  who  are  wilfully  committed 
against  the  fact,  and  who,  unconsciously  perhaps,  try  to 
prevent  what  they  might  not  wish  to  find  true. 

Dr.  Hammond  proposed  to  test  Miss  Fancher  b}^  placing 
in  an  envelope  a  check  for  over  one  thousand  dollars,  and 
having  her  tell,  under  prescribed  conditions,  the  number, 
amount,  &c.  Such  offers  have  been^  repeatedly  made,  and 
declined  for  a  reason,  which  is  this :     You  might  as  well 


CLAIRVOYANCE.  233 

expect  the  needle  to  point  true  while  you  are  agitating  the 
compass,  as  expect  to  elicit  clairvo^^ance  under  the  stress 
and  excitement  of  an  anxious  motive,  or  under  the  dis- 
turbance produced  hy  the  simple  i^resence  of  an  uncon- 
genial person,  aggressively  disposed. 

Clairvo3'ance  is  a  phenomenon  as  delicate  and  uncertain 
as  that  manifested  in  the  caprices  —  the  sudden  flashes  and 
sudden  eclipses  —  of  memor3\  A  subject's  lucidity  is  al- 
ways impaired  or  spoiled  by  anything  that  excites  anxi- 
ety or  irritation,  or  appeals  to  cupidity.  Na}^,  the  very 
presence  of  a  person  convinced  that  there  is  imposture,  and 
eagerly  bent  on  detecting  it,  would,  without  any  external 
manifestation,  be  felt  by  a  sensitive  as  readily  as  she  might 
feel,  in  her  normal  state,  a  freezing  current  of  air. 

Every  patient  investigator  knows  all  this  ;  and  it  was  the 
reason  why  such  physicians  as  Dr.  Gregor}^  and  Dr.  Had- 
dock, having  the  command  of  clairvo^'ants,  always  refused 
to  subject  them  to  th&  money  test.  Such  negative  proofs 
of  indisposition  to  act  under  conditions  that  would  intro- 
duce all  these  adverse  influences,  do  not  reach  the  real 
truth,  for,  as  Mr.  Wallace  remarks,  "  How  can  any  number 
of  individual  failures  affect  the  question  of  the  compara- 
tively rare  successes  ?  As  well  deny  that  any  rifleman  can 
hit  the  bull's-eye  at  one  thousand  yards  because  none  can 
be  sure  of  hitting  it  always  and  at  a  moment's  notice." 

There  is  no  great  subject  in  regard  to  which  investiga- 
tion has  been  so  barren  of  results,  as  in  that  of  discrete 
states  of  consciousness.  With  the  exception  of  a  few  stu- 
dents of  mesmerism,  who  among  the  philosophers  has 
treated  it  intelligently  ?  who  has  penetrated  to  the  actual 
significance  of  the  phenomenon  ? 

In  certain  abnormal  states,  in  trance  and  somnambulism, 
a  consciousness  is  revealed  which  is  not  that  of  the  indi- 
vidual when  he  is  awake  or  not  "under  influence."  The 
somnambulic   consciousness  may  comprehend  the  normal, 


234  SPIRITUAL   FACULTIES. 

but  the  normal  may  know  nothing  of  what  is  peculiar  to 
the  somnambulic ;  of  facts  and  persons  familiar  to  the 
somnambulist,  the  same  subject  may  be  wholly  ignorant  in 
his  normal  state,  and  in  that  state  he  ma}'  entertain  opin- 
ions diametrically  opposed  to  those  he  holds  in  his  higher 
and  more  lucid  state. 

Townshend,  in  his  "Facts  in  Mesmerism,"  relates  the 
case  of  his  subject,  E.  A.,  in  whom  good  talents  and  a 
good  disposition  had  been  warped  by  an  unfortunate  edu- 
cation. Young  as  he  was,  he  had  imbibed  infidel  opinions 
at  Paris,  and  had  no  belief  either  in  God  or  a  future  state. 
In  somnambulism,  all  this  was  changed.  His  ideas  of  the 
mind  were  correct,  and  singularly  opposed  to  the  material- 
istic views  he  took  of  all  questions  when  in  the  waking 
state.  "Is  there  a  future  punishment  for  evil-doers?" 
Townshend  once  asked  of  him  when  somnambulic.  "  Un- 
doubtedly, a  great  one."  "  In  what  will  it  consist?"  "In 
seeing  themselves  as  they  are,  and  God  as  he  is."  The 
theorj'  that  E.  A.,  while  somnambulic,  merely  reflected  the 
opinions  of  his  mesmerizer,  will  not  serve  ;  for  on  ijianj- 
subjects  he  would  maintain  independent  opinions,  and 
argue  with  great  acuteness. 

Instances  in  which  a  great  change  of  character  has  been 
manifested  in  somnambulism  could  be  quoted  without 
number.  Such  changes  are  often  produced  by  disease. 
"Sometimes,"  sa^^s  Hahnemann,  "a  man  who  is  patient 
while  in  the  enjoyment  of  health  becomes  passionate,  vio- 
lent, capricious,  and  unbearable,  or  impatient  and  despair- 
ing while  he  is  ill ;  or  those  formerl}^  chaste  and  modest 
often  become  lascivious  and  shameless.  It  is  frequently 
the  case  that  a  sensible  man  becomes  stupid  in  sickness, 
whereas  a  weak  mind  is  rendered  stronger,  and  a  man  of 
slow  temperament  acquires  great  presence  of  mind  and 
resolution." 

"These  ph^-sical  defects,"  says  Dr.  Gorton,  "are  fre- 


A   DUPLEX  CONSCIOUSNESS.  235 

qiiently  observed  in  adult  life,  in  the  progress  of  chronic 
maladies.  The  vicious  become  amiable,  and  the  amiable 
vicious ;  the  irritable  and  connbative  become  kind  and 
obliging ;  the  weak-minded  become  strong-minded,  and  the 
strong-minded  weak-minded.  .  .  .  Sometimes  the  ps3xhi- 
cal  sj^mptoms  are  more  clearl}^  characteristic  of  the  malady 
than  are  the  so-called  phj^sical  symptoms." 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  instances  of  a  change  of 
consciousness  is  that  of  Mary  Reynolds,  one  of  an  English 
famil}^  that  settled  near  Meadville,  Pa.,  early  in  this  cen- 
tury. A  full  and  remarkably  well-authenticated  historj^  of 
her  case  was  published  in  Harper's  Magazine  for  May, 
1860,  from  the  pen  of  the  Rev.  William  S.  Plummer.  In 
1811,  when  nineteen  j^ears  of  age,  Mary  fell  into  a  state 
of  insensibility.  From  this  she  recovered,  but  subse- 
quently, for  fifteen  years,  presented  the  phenomenon  of  a 
duplex  consciousness.  In  her  abnormal  second  state,  how- 
ever, there  was  a  peculiarit}^  distinguishing  it  from  all  other 
cases  (with  one  exception)  that  I  have  known  of;  for, 
instead  of  having  in  her  second  state  the  memories  of  her 
firsts  all  the  knowledge  she  had  ever  acquired  seemed  to 
have  passed  away  from  her.  She  knew  neither  father  nor 
mother,  brother  nor  sisters ;  she  had  not  the  slightest 
consciousness  that  she  had  ever  existed  before.  She  would 
play  with  a  rattlesnake  she  met  in  her  path,  wholly  igno- 
rant of  the  danger.  She  was  quick  to  learn,  however,  and 
made  rapid  acquisitions.  In  her  thirty-fifth  year,  the  alter- 
nations from  one  state  to  the  other  ceased,  leaving  her  per- 
manently in  her  second  state.  In  this  state  she  was  a  very 
different  person  in  character  from  what  she  was  in  Iiqy  first 
state.  Sedate,  melanchoty,  slow  of  thought,  and  unimagi- 
native in  her  first  state,  she  was  gaj^,  social,  jocular,  and 
fond  of  poetry  in  her  second  state.  Her  handwriting,  too, 
was  ver}^  difi'erent  from  that  of  number  One. 

"  The  phenomena,"  says  Dr.  Plummer,  "  were  as  if  her 


236  SPIRITUAL   FACULTIES. 

bod}'  was  the  house  of  -two  souls,  not  occupied  b}^  both  at 
the  same  time,  but  alternately,  first  by  one,  and  then  by 
the  other.  That  the  case  was  a  genuine  one  admits  not 
of  a  doubt.  The  two  lives  were  entirely  separate.  The 
thoughts  and  feelings,  the  knowledge  and  experience,  the 
joys  and  sorrows,  the  likes  and  dislikes  of  the  one  state  did 
not  in  an}^  way  influence  or  modify  those  of  the  other. 

' '  The  leading  facts  are  authenticated  by  a  chaui  of  tes- 
timony of  unimpeachable  character,  covering  the  whole 
period.  Marj^  Rej^nolds  had  no  motive  for  practising  im- 
posture ;  and  her  mental  and  moral  character  forbids  the 
supposition  that  she  had  either  the  disposition  or  abilitj^  to 
plan  and  carry  out  such  a  fraud  ;  and  had  she  done  so,  she 
could  not  have  avoided  detection  in  the  course  of  the 
fifteen  jxars  during  which  the  pretended  changes  alternated, 
and  the  subsequent  quarter  of  a  century,  which  she  pro- 
fessed to  pass  wholly  in  her  second  state."  The  Rev.  Dr. 
Wa^dand,  in  the  last  edition  of  his  "Intellectual  Philos- 
oplw,"  refers  to  this  case  as  "more  remarkable  than  any 
that  he  had  met  with  elsewhere." 

It  is  indeed  a  curious  case.  Which  was  the  accountable 
being,  number  One  or  number  Two  ?  If,  as  Locke  tells  us, 
personahty  consists  in  identity  of  consciousness,  was  Mary 
Rej'nolds  a  person  ?  In  ph3'sical  form  she  was  the  same  in 
the  two  states,  but  in  mind,  disposition,  and  memory,  she 
was  wholly  different.  What  became  finally  of  number 
One?  Was  she  rubbed  out,  as  one  rubs  out  an  unsatis- 
factor}'  drawing?  Was  number  Two  a  distinct  spiritual 
entity?  If  the  two  were  one  In  essence,  but  manifesting 
two  distinct  consciousnesses,  then  whj^  should  there  not  be 
for  all  of  us  a  distinct  consciousness,  stowed  away  some- 
where in  our  complex  organism,  into  which  we  may  emerge 
at  death?  But  if  we  lose  our  familiar  consciousness,  and 
become  radically  changed  in  character  and  memorj^,  do  we 
not  lose  our  identity?     Can  we  be  said  to  be  the  same 


A  DUPLEX  CONSCIOUSNESS.  237 

being  we  were  in  this  life  ?  Are  we  not  in  a  sense  anni- 
hilated? 

Our  solution  of  the  puzzle  is  this :  There  was  onl}^  one 
Mary  Rejmolcls,  and  only  one  consciousness ;  but  of  that 
consciousness  there  were  what  Swedenborg  calls  discrete 
degrees.  If  in  one  state  she  did  not  have  the  memories  of 
the  other,  it  was  not  because  an}^  mental  possession  was 
obliterated,  but  because  in  the  revolution  a  new  phase,  a 
distinct  degree,  was  arrived  at.  The  memories  and  the 
suspended  consciousness  were  all  in  the  soul,  like  a  faculty 
unexercised  or  superseded.  The  soul,  rising  in  this  life  or 
the  next,  to  a  consciousness  as  high  above  the  second  as 
the  second  was  above  ihQ  firsts  would  comprehend  all  that 
was  in  both  degrees  ;  appropriating  to  itself  what  was  best 
in  each  —  the  memories  remaining  unimpaired  forever. 

A  case  somewhat  analogous  to  that  which  I  have  de- 
scribed in  my  own  experience,  as  illustrating  the  fact  of  a 
distinct  somnambulic  consciousness,  ma}"  be  found  related 
in  La  Revue  Scientifique  of  May  20,  1876,  edited  by  GS^er- 
mer  Bailliere,  Paris.  It  is  that  of  Felida  X.,  born  at  Bor- 
deaux, in  1843,  of  health}^  parents.  At  fourteen  and  a 
half  3'ears  old,  she  presented  the  curious  phenomenon  of 
"  a  double  personalit}^"  Dr.  Azam,  of  the  Public  Insane 
Asylum,  investigated  and  described  the  case.  Passing 
through  a  state  of  cataleptic  prostration,  Felida  would 
emerge  into  a  state  where  she  was  no  longer  the  same  per- 
son. Sullen  and  sad  in  her  normal  state,  the  Ego  Number 
Two  would  be  ga}",  vivacious,  and  active.  She  would  now 
remember  all  that  took  place  during  previous  similar  states, 
as  well  as  during  her  normal  life ;  but  when  she  relapsed 
into  her  normal  state  she  would  have  no  remembrance  of 
what  had  happened  during  these  attacks.  In  this  second 
life  there  were  no  hallucinations  ;  she  seemed  in  the  full 
possession  of  all  her  faculties  ;  there  was  no  physical  pain  ; 
it  was  a  superior  life  in  e^'ery  wa}^     The  phenomena  seem 


238  SPIRITUAL   FACULTIES. 

to  have  been  similar  to  those  in  the  case  of  Mrs.  Mowatt ; 
ool}'  Felicia  was  independent  of  mesmeric  influence. 

An  illustration  of  that  interior  or  iDsj'chical  conscious- 
ness, the  realit}'  of  which  is  verified  by  our  phenomena,  is 
contained  in  an  incident  originall}'  communicated  to  me  b}^ 
my  sister,  Mrs.  Henry  B.  Hoffman,  of  Davenport,  Iowa, 
in  a  private  letter,  which  was  published  by  me  in  the  Bos- 
ton Evening  Transcript  of  October  2,  1874.  Bishop  Lee, 
of  the  American  Episcopal  Church,  died  September  26, 
1874.  M}^  sister's  letter,  dated  Davenport,  September  28, 
1874,  is  as  follows  : 

"  AYe  have  been  very  anxious  the  last  two  weeks  over 
the  illness  of  Bishop  Lee,  which  terminated  in  his  death  on 
Saturday  morning.  Some  two  months  ago  he  got  up  in 
the  night  and  took  a  bath,  and  on  returning  to  his  room  he 
made  a  mis-step,  slipped  down  a  long  flight  of  stairs,  and 
landed  at  the  foot  with  a  tremendous  crash,  as  he  was  very 
heav}',  weighing  over  two  hundred  pounds.  It  aroused  the 
whole  farailv ;  Mrs,  Lee  and  Carrie  sprang  from  their  beds, 
and  lighting  each  a  candle,  went  to  see  what  had  happened, 
and  found  the  bishop  lying  on  the  floor  of  the  entry. '  He 
got  up,  however,  without  aid,  and  seemed  to  have  received 
no  injury  except  a  few  slight  bruises,  though  his  right  hand 
was  a  little  lamed. 

"  Mr.  Hoffman  and  mj^self  called  on  him  two  days  after, 
and  while  teUlng  us  the  circumstance  of  the  fall,  he  mentioned 
this  coincidence  :  He  had  a  letter  in  his  hand,  which  he  had 
just  received  from  his  son  Henrj',  living  at  Kansas  City. 
His  son  wrote:  'Are  you  well?  For  last  night  I  had  a 
dream  that  troubles  me.  I  heard  a  crash,  and  standing  up, 
said  to  m}^  wife.  Bid  you  hear  that  crash?  I  dreamed  that 
father  had  afall^  and  teas  dead.  1  got  up  and  looked  at 
m}^  watch,  and  it  was  two  o'clock.  I  could  not  sleep  again, 
so  vivid  was  the  dream.'  And  it  made  him  anxious  to  hear 
from  home. 

"The  bishop  said  he  was  not  superstitious,  but  he 
thouglit  it  remarkable  that  Henry  should  have  had  the 
dream  at  the  very  hour  of  the  same  night  that  the  accident 
occurred.  The  difference  in  the  time  there  and  here  (Kan- 
sas City  and  Davenport)  is  just  fifteen  minutes,  and  it  was 


LUCID   SOMNAMBULISM.  239 

a  quarter  past  two  by  his  watch,  maMng  it  at  the  same  mo- 
ment. It  was  as  if  Henry  had  actually  heard  the  fall. 
And  the  fall  flnall}-  caused  the  bishop's  death.  His  hand 
became  iutenselj^  painful,  and  gangrene  set  in,  which,  after 
two  weeks  of  suffering,  terminated  his  life.  We  are  none 
of  us  Spiritualists,  as  you  know,  but  surely  facts  like  this 
must  go  far  to  make  us  realize  that  there  is  a  basis  of  truth 
for  the  hypothesis  of  spiritual  faculties  resident  in  man. 
How  did  Henry  Lee  become  cognizant  of  the  accident  to 
his  father?" 

How,  indeed?  "Was  his  whole  mental  and  psjxhical 
region  in  a  state  of  insensibility  and  unconsciousness? 
Surely  not ;  for  in  that  case  there  would  have  been  no  fac- 
ulty in  a  state  to  receive  a  supersensual  impression.  Was 
there  a  spiritual  faculty,  sufficiently  awake  to  be  in  a  state 
of  receptivit}^,  while  the  ph3'sical  senses  were  locked  in 
slumber,  and  the  phase  of  cerebral  consciousness  was 
eclipsed  ?  Yes  ;  it  was  through  his  spiritual  consciousness 
that  he,  while  his  phj^sical  body  was  hundreds  of  miles 
away,  heard  the  fall,  and  received  the  impression  that  his 
father  had  been  mortallj^  hurt.  And  such  was  the  shock 
that  it  was  communicated  to  his  normal  (cerebral)  con- 
sciousness, and  sleep  was  dispelled. 

A  merchant  of  New  Orleans,  while  in  Paris,  was  awak- 
ened from  sleep  by  hearing  in  a  vivid  dream,  as  it  seemed, 
his  son,  who  was  in  America,  utter  the  words,  ''Father, 
I'm  djing."  So  impressed  by  it  was  the  merchant,  that  he 
rose  from  bed,  struck  a  hght,  and  recorded  the  dream  and 
its  date  in  his  memorandum-book.  On  arriving  in  New 
Orleans,  a  month  afterwards,  the  first  acquaintance  he  met 
told  him  that  his  son  was  dead,  and  that  his  last  words  had 
been,  "Father,  I'm  dying,"  —  the  date  of  the  death  cor- 
responding perfectly  with  that  of  the  dream.  This  inci- 
dent I  ipublished  at  the  time .  in  a  Boston  newspaper,  as  I 
found  it  related,  with  names,  in  a  New  Orleans  journal.     It 


240  SPIRITUAL  FACULTIES. 

is  adopted  bj  Justinus  Kerner,  in  his  i^ublished  Memo- 
rabilia. 

The  Pacific  Hotel,  in  St.  Louis,  was  destroj^ed  by  fire, 
February,  1858.  A  little  brother  of  Mr.  Henry  Eochester, 
living  at  home  with  his  parents  near  Avon,  N.  Y.,  woke 
screaming  from  sleep  the  night  of  the  fire,  and  declared 
that  his  brother  Henrj^  was  burning  to  death  in  an  hotel. 
Such  was  the  boy's  horror  and  alarm  that  it  was  with  difiiculty 
he  could  be  pacified.  This  was  about  midnight.  Twelve 
hours  afterwards  the  parents  received  a  telegram  from  St. 
Louis,  confirming  the  boy's  vision  in  every  particular. 

In  almost  everj^  famil}^,  whose  traditions  have  been 
carefully  kept,  there  is  some  incident  to  parallel  these. 
They  x^oint  to  the  great  and  significant  fact  of  a  spiritual 
consciousness,  independent  of  the  cerebral.  Some  finer  or- 
ganism than  the  physical  and  external  is  needed  to  receive 
subtile  impressions  remitted  on  the  instant  from  Kansas 
City  to  Davenport,  from  Ems  to  Boston,  from  Paris  to 
New  Orleans,  and  from  Avon  to  St.  Louis.  The  external 
senses  are  not  used  in  these  communications.  Only  the 
theory  of  spiritual  senses,  transcendent  in  their  nature, 
will  account  for  them.  Multiplied  as  these  phenomena 
have  been  within  the  last  thirt}^  j^ears,  they  cannot  be  rea- 
sonabty  explained  away  as  coincidences.  They  are  made 
credible  by  the  now  famihar  facts  of  Spiritualism. 

In  the  harbor  of  Norwalk,  Conn.,  June  7,  1873,  a  little 
row-boat,  containing  nine  boj^s,  members  of  Mr.  Selleck's 
school,  under  the  charge  of  Mr.  Farnham,  theii'  teacher, 
was  struck  and  overturned  b}^  the  rudder  of  a  steamer, 
which  had  suddenly  backed  in  consequence  of  an  accident 
onboard.  Three  young  and  noble  boys  —  Eddie  Morris, 
Willie  Crane,  and  Charley  Bostwick  —  were  drowned  by 
the  colhsion.  From  the  NorwalJc  Gazette  of  June  10, 1873, 
I  quote  the  following  particulars  of  a  dream  which  preceded 
the  accident : 


SOMNASIBULIC   PREVISION.  241 

* '  A  curious  circumstance  of  a  dream  has  gained  some 
notoriety,  and  though  all  parties  disclaim  all  inclination  to 
be  superstitious,  yet  it  is  so  singular  that  we  have  been  at 
the  pains  of  getting  the  facts.  Last  Friday  (the  day  before 
the  accident).  Dr.  Hays,  an  assistant  teacher,  and  a  man 
of  medical  attaiiunents,  remarked  to  a  fellow-teacher,  '  I 
have  dreamed,  two  nights  in  succession,  that  three  of  our 
boys  were  drowned.  It  is  very  foolish  to  speak  of  it,  but 
somehow  it  haunts  me,  and  please  have  a  care  to  the  boys 
when  on  the  water.'  Saturday  morning,  he  remarked  to 
Mr.  Farnham,  who  was  to  head  the  party  to  Peach  Island, 
'Farnham,  look  out  for  the  bo3's,  for  somehow  I  can't  rid 
myself  of  that  presentiment.'  When  Charley  White  —  the 
first  boy  who  reached  the  house  Saturday  night  —  came  in, 
drenched  with  water,  the  doctor  exclaimed,  '  How  bad  is 
it?  Who  is  drowned?'  and  fainted,  and  fell  into  White's 
arms." 

Wishing  to  authenticate  this  remarkable  statement,  I 
wrote  to  the  Norvjalk  Gazette^  and  in  a  few  daj's  received 
this  reply : 

"NoKWALK,  June  5,  1879. 

"  Dear  Sir  :  Yours  of  May  27th  was  duly  received.  We 
have  delayed  answering  for  several  daj's  in  hopes  of  finding 
a  copy  of  the  Gazette  containing  the  dream  alluded  to. 
We  have  finally  found  one  cop}^,  which  we  forward  to  your 
address  by  this  mail.  You  will  find  a  full  report  of  the 
accident,  &c.  The  dream  was  personally  related  to  us  at 
the  time,  as  much  pains  was  taken  to  obtain  all  facts  and 
incidents  of  interest.     Yours  truly, 

"A.  H.  Btington  &  Co." 

Here  is  not  only  clairvoyance,  but  prevision  through  a 
dream.  It  is  in  perfect  accord  with  the  testimony  of  Aris- 
totle, HijDpocrates,  Galen,  Cicero,  Plutarch,  and  thousands 
of  other  eminent  men  of  ancient  times  to  similar  occur- 
rences. Indeed,  the  number  of  well-attested  cases  in  our 
own  day  is  overwhelming. 

Does  divination  require  the  aid  of  independent  spirits  ? 
The  question,  as  I  have  already  shown,  is  discussed  by 
16 


242  .    SPIRITUAL   FACULTIES. 

Plutarch,  and  he  conchides,  with  Cicero,  that  there  may  be 
two  kinds  of  divination,  one  from  the  gods  (spirits),  and 
one  from  the  godlike  powers  of  the  human  soul.  This 
fully  accords  with  the  theory,  that  a  class  of  spiritual  phe- 
nomena may,  under  conditions,  be  produced  by  spirits  in 
the  flesh,  as  well  as  by  those  out  of  the  flesh. 

On  the  subject  of  human  testimony.  La  Place,  the  great 
mathematician,  remarks  (in  his  Essai  sur  les  Prohahilites)  ^ 
that  "any  case,  however  apparently  incredible,  if  it  is  a 
recurrent  case,  is  as  much  entitled  to  a  fair  valuation, 
under  the  laws  of  induction,  as  if  it  had  been  more  prob- 
able beforehand."  How  opposed  to  this  rale  is  the  de- 
meanor of  physicists  generallj^  towards  spiritual  phenomena  ! 

"  Orthodox  science,"  says  Edward  Maitland,  "  has  three 
defects  :  First,  it  assumes  that  it  knows,  in  advance  of  ex- 
perience, both  what  are  the  limits  of  natural  fact,  and  what 
are  the  limits  of  the  natural  faculties  by  which  the  fact  is 
to  be  judged.  Secondly,  it  assumes  that  there  are  no  facts 
which  are  not  expressible  in  terms  belonging  to  a  single  plane 
of  consciousness ;  that  is,  it  assumes  the  reality  of  all  that  is 
perceived  by  the  senses  on  one  plane,  namely,  the  ]3hysical, 
and  it  attempts  to  explain,  in  terms  derived  from  that  plane, 
phenomena  which  pertain  to  other  planes ;  and  failing  to 
find  such  explanation,  it  rejects  all  insoluble  phenomena  as 
fraud."  .... 

Thus  any  super-physical  fact  is,  in  the  estimation  of  the 
pseudo-science  that  would  identify  mind  and  matter,  non- 
existent. And  yet,  in  many  ways,  it  asserts,  or  hypoth- 
ecates, doctrines  for  which  experience  cannot  vouch. 


CUMULATIVE  TESTIMONY.  243 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

AliTENT     OF     MODERN     SPIRITUALISM. SPIRIT-COMMUNICA- 
TIONS.  TRY  THE  SPIRITS.  INCONSISTENCIES  OF   TRANCE- 

MEDIUMSHIP.  —  MORE     OBJECTIONS      ANSWERED.  MORE 

PHENOMENA. 

Coleridge  once  said  of  mesmerism,  that  "it  might  be 
the  refraction  of  a  great  truth,  still  below  the  horizon." 
This  seems  much  like  a  premonition  of  the  advent  of  mod- 
ern Spiritualism. 

Andrew  Jackson  Davis,  in  "  Nature's  Divine  Revelations," 
written  as  far  back  as  the  3'ear  1845,  remarked  in  regard  to 
the  intercommunication  of  the  spirit- world  and  ours  :  ' '  This 
truth  will  ere  long  present  itself  in  the  form  of  a  living 
demonstration."  The  words  were  uttered  two  years  before 
the  manifestations  at  H3Tlesville.  Parts  of  the  book  were 
read  in  manuscript  to  the  Rev.  George  Bush,  the  eminent 
Hebrew  scholar,  and  mj^self,  as  far  back  as  the  year  1845. 

The  following  passage  from  a  communication  got  medially 
through  the  little  gyrating  tripod  called  a  planchette,  is  a 
fair  specimen  of  the  better  sort  of  writings  purporting  to 
come  from  spirits : 

"  Hitherto  science  has  been  almost  wholly  materiaUstic  in 
its  tendencies,  having  nothing  to  do  with  spiritual  things, 
but  ignoring  or  casting  doubt  upon  them ;  while  spiritual 
matters,  on  the  other  hand,  have  been  regarded  b}^  the 
Church  wholly  as  matters  of  faith  with  which  science  has 
nothing  to  do.  But  through  these  modern  manifestations 
God  is  providentially  furnishing  to  the  world  all  the  ele- 
ments of  a  spiritual  science  loJiich.,  when  established  and 
recognized,  will  he  the  stomdpoint  from  which  all  physical 


244  SPIRIT-COMMUNICATIONS. 

science  will  he  vieiued.  It  will  then  be  more  distinctlj^  known 
that  all  external  and  visible  forms  and  motions  originate 
from  invisible,  spiritual,  and  ultimateh^  divine  causes ;  that 
between  cause  and  effect  there  is  alwa3^s  a  necessarj'  and 
intimate  correspondence ;  and  hence  that  the  w4iole  outer 
universe  is  but  the  symbol  and  sure  index  of  an  invisible 
and  vastly  more  real  universe  within." 

All  this  is  directly  at  variance  with  the  declaration  of 
Mrs.  Richmond's  "  controls,"  that  there  can  be  no  scientific 
basis  for  Spiritualism. 

Phenomena  outside  of  all  scientific  verification  offer  a 
field  for  abject  superstition  and  for  medial  or  spiritual  des- 
potism ;  for  credulous  submission  on  the  one  side  and  arro- 
gant assumption  on  the  other.  Every  sincere  truth-seeker 
will  desire  to  have  a  iDurety  rational  and  scientific  co-ordina- 
tion of  our  facts.  He  will  submit  to  no  imperious  "  Thus 
saith  the  Lord,"  as  to  their  interpretation,  whether  it  come 
from  a  spirit  or  from  a  medial  seer  claiming  inspiration. 

The  editor  of  a  leading  scientific  journal  tells  us  that  the 
man  of  science  may  logically  reply  to  the  Spiritualist  as 
follow^s  : 

"  I  cannot  w^aste  time  in  listening  to  you.  I  am  limited 
to  nature  ;  j^ou  take  your  stand  outside  of  it,  and  there  is 
no  common  ground  between  us.  You  come  to  me  denying 
that  which  I  find  demonstrated  everj^where.  Between  j^our 
Spiritualism  and  my  materialism  there  is  a  fundamental 
antagonism ;  your  position  is  radically  anti-scientific,  and 
so  let  us  keep  clear  of  each  other." 

Science  takes  cognizance  of  phenomena,  objective  and 
subjective.  I  have  shown  by  overwhelming  testimony 
that  Spiritualism  has  its  objective,  though  conditional,  phe- 
nomena, which  are  just  as  much  addressed  to  the  senses  as 
the  phenomenon  of  opening  flowers  in  spring.  The  ph^'si- 
cist  ma}^  affect  to  rule  out  Spiritualism  from  the  domain 
of  science  ;  but  this  he  cannot  do  without  a  \iolation  of  his 


CUMULATIVE  TESTIMONY.  245 

own  principle  of  loyalty  to  the  experimental  method.  So 
far  as  it  deals  in  such  demonstrable  phenomena  as  pneuma- 
tography,  so  far  is  Spiritualism  scientific,  and  if  our  mate- 
rialistic opponents  do  not  realize  this,  it  is  because  they 
persist  in  ignoring  facts  now  experimentally  known  to  in- 
telligent millions.  The  pretence  that  these  facts  are  con- 
trary to  nature  has  been  amply  answered  in  preceding  pages. 
No  reasonable  man  will  deny  that  the  testimony  of  a  hun- 
dred competent  observers  to  a  constantly  recui'ring  fact  is 
sufficient  to  neutralize  the  speculations  of  all  the  philoso- 
IDhers  and  all  the  physicists.  The  assumption  that  there 
cannot  be  such  an  occurrence  as  a  manifestation  by  spirit- 
power  is  as  grossly  unscientific  as  was  the  assumption  of 
those  who  rejected  the  theory  of  the  rotundity  of  the  earth. 
And  yet  it  is  upon  this  mere  assumption  that  our  editor 
would  justify  his  refusal  to  listen  to  our  facts  and  our  rea- 
sons. 

Science  is  not  a  mere  knowledge  of  facts  ;  it  is  also  a  fit 
method  of  construing  them.  It  has  been  said  that  "  the 
common  knowledge  of  people  is  imperfect  because  they  find 
it  easier  to  invent  fanciful  explanations  of  things  than  to 
discover  the  real  ones ;  that  for  thousands  of  years  the 
knowledge  of  nature  was  rude  and  stationary  because  the 
habits  of  thought  were  so  defective."  All  this  is  true  ;  but 
the  following  is  also  true  : 

' '  The  first  step  to  a  scientific  view  of  things  was  one  of 
self-assertion,  implying  that  degree  of  mental  independence 
which  led  men  to  think  for  themselves.  They  learned  to  make 
their  own  observations  and  to  trust  them  against  authority. 
It  was  found,  as  a  first  and  indispensable  condition  of  gain- 
ing clear  ideas,  that  the  mind  must  he  occupied  directly  with 
the  subject  to  he  investigated.  In  this  way  scientific  inquiry 
at  length  grew  into  a  method  of  forming  judgments  which 
were  characterized  bj^the  most  vigilant  and  disciplined  pre- 
cautions against  error.  The  scientific  method  is  applicable 
to  all  subjects  whatever  that  involve  constancy  of  relations, 


246  SPIRIT-COMMUNICATIONS. 

causes  and  effects,  and  conform  to  the  operation  of  law. 
It  is  applicable  wherever  evidence  is  to  be  weighed,  error 
got  rid  of,  facts  determined,  and  principles  established." 

Do  our  specialists  in  science,  who  pretend  to  decide  upon 
our  facts,  observe  this  first  great  requisite,  namel}',  to 
"  occupy  the  mind  directly  with  the  subject  to  be  investi- 
gated"? On  the  contrary,  they  dispose  of  it  by  the  a 
priori  method :  it  is  all  wrong  because  it  conflicts  with 
their  preconceptions  as  to  the  order  of  nature.  Well  and 
wisely  is  it  remarked  by  C.  C.  Massey :  "To  the  present 
WTiter,  at  least,  so-called  Spiritualism  represents  no  reli- 
gious craze  or  sectarian  belief,  but  an  aggregation  (not  yet 
to  be  called  a  system)  of  proven  facts  of  incalculable  im- 
portance to  science  and  speculation.  Those  who  so  regard 
the  subject  would  be  unmoved  in  their  convictions  of  its 
truth  and  importance,  though  it  were  proved  that  every 
medium  was  a  rogue,  and  that  msmy  Spiritualists  were 
their  willing  dupes.  Much  of  the  evidence  on  which  we 
rely  has  proceeded  on  that  very  assumption^  and  on  the 
precautions  which  icere  accordingly  tctken." 

Huxley  objects  to  the  low  character  of  the  communica- 
tions ;  and  so  do  we  all  object,  when  these  can  be  fairly 
characterized  as  low.  The  claim  of  a  class  of  mediums 
that  the}^  are  writing  or  speaking  under  the  control  of  some 
spirit,  once  eminent  in  the  earth-life  as  poet,  philosopher, 
or  seer,  has  been  too  freely  admitted  by  uncritical  Spirit- 
ualists. It  cannot  be  too  emphatically  enjoined  upon  the 
inexperienced  that  one  of  the  most  difficult  things  to  be 
satisfied  of  is  the  identity  of  a  spirit.  That  cases  of  iden- 
tification do  occur,  I  am  well  aware.  From  m}^  own  expe- 
rience I  can  believe  that  identifications  by  the  materializa- 
tion process  are  not  unfrequent.  My  friend,  the  Rev. 
Samuel  Watson,  of  Memphis,  tells  me  he  has  repeatedl}^  had 
such  experiences  in  his  own  librarj',  where  the  conditions 
were  perfect.     The  following  relation,  which  I  find  in  a  dis- 


CUMULATIVE   TESTIMONY.  247 

course  delivered  in  Brooklj^D,  N.  Y.,  by  Mrs.  F.  0.  ri3'zer, 
June  12,  1880,  is  similar  to  man}^  that  I  have  heard  from 
credible  witnesses.  In  this  case  Mrs.  H^^zer  and  her  sister 
were  wholly  unknown  to  the  medium : 

"  At  length  a  female  form  presented  itself,  and  in  answer 
to  our  inquiries  claimed  to  be  my  mother,  who  passed  from 
earth  fifteen  j^ears  ago.  Although  her  height,  and  size,  and 
general  appearance  corresponded  perfectl}^  with  the  form 
of  my  mother,  —  having  something  resembling  a  pointed 
paper  cap  covering  the  head  and  upper  portion  of  the  face, 
(as  they  informed  us,  to  shield  their  faces  from  the  de- 
materializing  efiects  of  the  light,) — I  could  not  assure 
myself  of  her  identity,  and  so  my  sister  and  myself  ad- 
mitted to  each  other.  In  a  moment,  as  though  in  response 
to  our  remarks,  she  raised  her  hand  —  the  hand  which  in 
earth-life  had  become  so  deformed  with  paralysis  as  to  have 
brought  the  middle  joints  of  the  fingers  down  upon  the 
wrist  —  a  position  reached  only  through  the  intensest  tor- 
ture, prolonged  for  three  years.  As  she  reached  to  us  this 
distorted  hand,  we  exclaimed,  in  one  breath,  '  Oh,  that  is 
indeed  mother's  hand  ! '  She  bowed,  and  then  again  held 
it  towards  us.  We  then  said,  '  Mother's  hand  is  not  de- 
formed in  spirit-life,  is  it?'  She  instantly  extended  it 
again,  in  a  fair  and  beautiful  outline." 

The  late  Luther  Park,  of  Boston,  informed  me  that  on 
one  occasion,  D.  D.  Home  being  the  medium,  a  spirit, 
claiming  to  be  Mr.  Park's  father,  presented  a  proof  of  his 
Identity  by  showing  his  hand,  in  which  there  was  a  peculiar 
malformation  of  the  thumb. 

But  how  are  we  to  explain  the  contradictions  and  incon- 
sistencies in  the  declarations  of  trance-mediums  as  to  their 
"  controls,"  if  we  take  the  ground  that  their  claim  is  to  be 
accepted  without  question?  A  medium  in  New  York, 
claiming  to  speak  under  the  control  of  Parker,  may  directly 
contradict  a  medium  in  Chicago,  making  the  same  claim. 
How  shall  we  decide  as  to  which  is  right  ?  By  the  internal 
evidence  ?  Undoubtedly.  But  then  we  might  not  decide  in 
favor  of  either.     The  two  may  be  equally  honest  and  capa- 


248  SPIRIT-COMMUNICATIONS. 

ble  ;  but  one  of  them  must  be  in  error.  I  believe  that  both 
ma}'  be  in  error,  and  both  sincere. 

"  How  so?  "  it  is  asked.  "  The  medium,  hj  the  hypoth- 
esis, is  honest.  Wh}',  then,  does  his  spirit,  in  the  state  of 
unconscious  trance,  present  itself  as  Parker  or  Franklin? 
Truthful  in  the  normal  state,  wh}'  is  it  guilty  of  a  falsehood 
in  the  abnormal?  Is  it  the  body  that  keeps  it  straight? 
When  freed  from  its  control,  does  it  act  a  part,  or  play  the 
fool,  or  take  pleasure  in  deceit?" 

To  all  this  it  would  be  sufficient  to  reph',  We  merely 
give  the  fact ;  the  explanation  of  it  may  be  difficult,  but 
the  fact  itself  is  not  affected  thereb}^  Which  of  the  me- 
diums is  right  in  regard  to  identlt}'  of  control?  Obviously 
we  are  thrown  back  on  our  human  reason  for  a  decision. 
Forever  apt  and  true,  therefore,  is  that  injunction  from  the 
evangelist  John,  "Beloved,  believe  not  ever}'  spirit,  but 
try  the  spirits  whether  the}'  are  of  God ;  because  many 
false  prophets  are  gone  out  into  the  world." 

I  am  aware  that  some  mediums,  honestly  claiming  to  get 
their  inspiration  from  the  spirit-world,  reject  Christ's  doc- 
trine of  the  existence  of  malevolent  spirits.  That  such 
spirits  are  kept  in  check  by  natural  laws,  I  do  not  doubt ; 
that  they  exist  is,  I  fear,  too  true.  Mrs.  Maria  M.  King, 
one  of  the  ablest  of  our  American  intuitionalists,  says : 
"The  medium  who  is  susceptible  to  the  influence  of  a  be- 
neficent spirit  sufficiently  to  become  his  subject,  is  safe 
from  the  influence  of  malignant  spirits,  from  several 
causes."  All  this  ma}'  be  true,  and  Mrs.  King  would  here 
seem  to  admit  that  there  are  such  things  as  malignant,  or, 
as  she  elsewhere  calls  them,  "  undeveloped"  spirits.  That 
these  may  interfere  in  the  afl'airs  of  mortals,  and  do  some 
mischief,  she  also  admits.  So  that,  after  all,  there  is  but  a 
slight  shade  of  diff'erence  —  that  conveyed  in  the  words  evil 
and  undeveloped  —  in  our  views.  That  I  may  do  justice  to 
her  opinions,  I  quote  her  words  : 


CUMULATIVE  TESTIMONY.  249 

"What  is  claimed  in  the  philosophj^  I  have  been  instru- 
mental in  giving  is,  that  civilization  in  the  spiritual  state 
does  what  civilization  in  the  material  state  aims  to  do. 
Being  spiritual  and  higher  in  the  strictest  sense,  it  can  do 
more  than  has  3^et  been  done  on  earth  in  dealing  with  ele- 
ments of  evil  and  ignorance.  Superior  methods  of  dealing 
with  the  lowly  have  been  developed  in  that  life,  where 
nothing  can  be  concealed  from  those  whose  duty  it  is  to 
oversee  society  there.  Men  disrobed  of  materiality  come 
more  readily  under  the  control  of  spirits  of  strong  psycho- 
logical power,  and  this  power  is  used  for  good  to  all  in 
earth  and  spirit  life,  as  a  safe  and  wise  policy  dictates." 

I  do  not  accept  the  theory,  sometimes  advanced,  that 
our  evil  dispositions  are  not  carried  with  us  into  the  spirit- 
world  ;  that  with  the  loss  of  our  physical  appetites,  we  lose 
all  those  inducements  to  evil  by  which  we  have  been  beset 
in  the  earth-life.  Be  not  deceived.  Between  the  earth-life 
and  the  proximate  spirit-life  there  is  a  correspondence  of 
all  things,  whether  good  or  evil ;  and  the  evil  we  have  not 
put  under  subjection  to  the  higher  faculties  in  this  life  will 
go  with  us  as  a  part  of  our  incumbrances  into  the  next, 
there  to  be  got  rid  of  only  by  our  own  efforts  and  the 
energy  of  our  own  volition. 

Still  I  admit  that  man  is  a  complex  being,  and  that  he 
may  be  interiorly  much  better  or  much  worse  than  he  ap- 
pears to  be,  to  himself  and  others,  in  his  normal  state. 
Some  saints  may  find  themselves  sinners,  and  some  sinners 
saints,  in  the  life  where  all  disguises  will  be  stripped  off. 

In  the  mystery  of  this  hidden,  interior  state  may  lie 
involved  one  of  the  solutions  of  the  question.  Why  can  we 
not  trust  the  assertions  of  trance-mediums  as  to  their 
"controls"?  There  are  mental  phenomena  in  abundance 
which  will  analogicallj^  jtistify  us  in  the  assumption  that 
the  medium  himself  may  be  innocently  the  subject  of  a 
self-imposed  delusion  as  to  identity.  And  then  the  high 
probability  that  there  are  unscrupulous  spirits,  who,  to  win 
attention,  will  assume  the  name  of  some  great  man,  must 


250  SPIRIT-COMMUNICATIONS. 

not  be  left  out  of  the  account.  If  a  human  mesmerizer 
can  create  dehisions  in  the  mind  of  his  subject,  wh}^  ma}^ 
not  a  spirit-mesmerizer  be  able  to  do  as  much  ?  That  he 
has  this  power  is  made  more  than  probable  by  a  multitude 
of  well-known  facts. 

There  are  higher  and  lower  grades  of  consciousness,  or 
states  of  mental  activit}',  than  the  normal,  as  somnambulism 
and  mesmerism  have  proved  ;  and  these  grades,  though  in 
certain  moments  of  psychical  illumination  they  ma^'  be 
fused  into  a  unit}^,  may  be  quite  distinct  from  our  habitual 
state  of  mental  activitj^  That  we  have  psj'chical  powers 
of  which  we  have  ordinaril}^  no  conception,  is  a  truth  which 
Plato,  Leibnitz,  and  Schelling  have  all  taught.  Our  mod- 
ern phenomena  confirm  it. 

"  How  is  it,"  we  are  asked,  "  that  an  uneducated  woman 
can,  when  medially  impressed,  give  forth  utterances  far 
transcending  all  that  she  knows  or  is  capable  of  in  her 
normal  state  ?  "  The  answer  is  :  She  may  have  got  much 
from  her  own  psychometric  appropriations,  practised  inde- 
pendentl}^  of  her  normal  consciousness ;  or  she  ma}^,  in 
some  instances,  be  influenced  b}^  a  spirit,  either  truthful  or 
deceptive. 

One  of  the  daughters  of  my  valued  correspondent,  the 
late  William  Howitt,  a  well-known  English  author,  was  a 
mesmeric  sensitive.  Howitt  told  Professor  W.  D.  Gun- 
ning, whose  words  (slightly  abridged)  I  here  use,  that,  on 
one  occasion,  his  daughter,  being  entranced,  wrote  a  com- 
munication signed  with  the  name  of  her  brother,  supposed 
to  be  in  Australia.  The  import  was,  that  he  had  been 
drowned  a  few  daj^s  before  in  a  lake.  Dates  and  details 
were  given.  The  parents  could  only  wait,  as  there  was 
then  no  trans-oceanic  telegraph.  Months  passed,  and  at 
last  a  letter  came  from  a  nephew  in  Melbourne,  bearing  the 
tidings  that  their  son  had  been  drowned  on  such  a  daj^,  in 
such  a  lake,  under  such  and  such  circumstances.     Date, 


CUMULATIVE  TESTIMONY.  251 

place,  and  all  the  essential  details  were  the  same  as  those 
given  months  before  through  the  daughter.  Howitt  be- 
lieved that  the  freed  spirit  of  his  son  influenced  the  sister 
to  write  ;  and  I  know  of  no  explanation  more  rational  than 
this. 

Plutarch,  born  about  50  a.  d.,  discusses  the  subject  of 
spirit-identity.  In  one  of  his  dialogues  an  interlocutor 
says:  "Why  should  we  seek  to  deprive  these  souls  that 
are  still  in  the  body  (human  beings)  of  that  power  by 
which  the  former  (freed  spirits)  know  future  events,  and 
are  able  to  announce  them?  Is  it  not  probable  that  the 
soul  gains  a  new  power  of  prophecy  after  separation  from 
the  bod}^,  and  which  it  did  not  possess  before  ?  We  may 
rather  conclude  that  it  had  all  its  powers,  though  in  a 
lesser  perfection,  during  its  union  with  the  bod}^" 

Again  Plutarch  says:  "  If  the  demons,  being  human 
spirits  disembodied,  may  foresee  and  foretell  human  events, 
why  may  not  human  spirits,  embodied,  possess  a  similar 
power?  Our  souls  indeed  are  interiorly  endowed  with  this 
power."  At  the  same  time,  as  I  have  alread}^  shown,  he 
takes  the  ground,  that  the  medium  may  not  unfrequently  be 
impressed  by  spirits  to  utter  their  thoughts,  if  not  their 
exact  language. 

Porphyry  (born  233  a.  d.)  tells  how  the  "demon" 
(spirit)  sometimes  speaks  through  the  mouth  of  the  "re- 
cipient" (medium)  who  is  entranced;  sometimes  presents 
himself  in  an  immaterial  or  even  material  form.  The 
trance  state  is  mixed  with  "  exhausting  agitation  or 
struggle."  Eight  choice  of  time  and  circumstances  for 
induciiig  the  trance  state,  and  obtaining  oracular  repKes, 
is,  he  says,  most  important,  for  a  Pythian  priestess  (me- 
dium), compelled  to  prophesy  (speak  in  trance)  while  under 
control  of  an  alien  spirit,  died  ;  and  under  unfavorable  con- 
ditions, "  the  spirit  would  warn  the  auditors  that  he  could 
not  give  information,  or  even  that  he  would  certainly  \p\\ 


252  SPIRIT-COMMUNICATIONS. 

falsehoods  on  tliat  particular  occasion."  "  On  descending 
into  our  atmosphere  the  spirits  become  subject  to  the  laws 
and  influences  that  rule  mankind  .  .  .  and  then  a  confusion 
occurs ;  therefore,  in  such  cases,  the  prudent  inquirer 
should  defer  his  researches  :  a  rule  with  which  inexperienced 
investigators  fail  to  compl3\" 

Given  a  favorable  day  and  a  "guiltless  intermediar}^ "  (a 
true  medium),  "some  confined  space  would  then  be  se- 
lected, so  that  the  influence  should  not  be  too  widely  dif- 
fused." This  place  was  sometimes  made  dark,  and  the 
spirit  was  invoked  with  "  yells  and  singing."  During  this 
singing  the  medium  "  falls  into  an  abnormal  slumber,  which 
extinguishes  for  the  time  his  own  identity  and  allows  the 
spirit  to  speak  through  his  lips,"  or,  in  the  exact  words  of 
Porphjay,  "  to  contrive  a  voice  for  himself  through  a  mortal 
instrument."  * 

Anaxagoras,  who  lived  500  jesLVS  before  Christ,  and  who 
maintained  that  pure  mind,  free  from  all  material  concre- 
tions, governs  the  universe,  teaches  that  the  human  soul 
has  powers  of  divination  in  its  own  right,  and  independent 
of  what  it  may  get  from  spirits  no  longer  earth-bound. 
P3^thagoras  held  a  like  belief. 

' '  To  the  question  Cui  bono  morally,  it  is  but  a  hollow 
answer  that  Spiritualism  returns,"  says  one  of  our  reverend 
assailants.  To  call  upon  us  to  explain  ichafs  the  use  of  it., 
in  regard  to  any  fact  of  nature,  is  not  a  philosophical  but  a 
childish  objection.  Nature  does  not  need  our  human  apol- 
ogies. If  our  facts  occur,  they  must  be  as  justifiable  mor- 
ally as  the  facts  of  humanit}''  itself.  To  say  that  i\iQj  re- 
turn a  hollow  answer  to  the  question  Cui  bono  f  is  simply  to 
make  human  deafness  or  blindness  the  measure  of  Infinite 
wisdom. 

These  questions,  Wliat  good  has  it  done?    or.  Has  not  its 

*  For  these  passajjes  from  Porphyry  I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  F.  W.  H.  Myers's 
able  essay  on  *'  The  Greek  Oracles." 


CUMULATIVE   TESTIMONY.     .  253 

influence  been  evil?  are  impertinent,  since  tlie  only  scientific 
question  is  at  present,  Is  it  true  9  The  notion  that  it  may 
be  true,  and  yet  something  very  bad,  seems  to  spring  from 
a  distrust  that  the  cosmos  is  not  rightlj^  named  ;  that  it  has 
no  divine  Orderer  ;  or  that  He  allows  things  to  take  place 
not  at  all  consistent  with  clerical  notions  of  spiritual  pro- 
priety. 

Perhaps  with  the  advance  of  our  own  intelligence  the  Cid 
bono  question  will  be  answered.  Perhaps  Spiritualism 
comes  fraught  with  divine  instruction  to  our  favored  age, 
and  if  we  fail  to  listen  to  its  lesson,  the  loss  will  be  our 
own.  It  is  surprising  how  persistently  men  otherwise  sensi- 
ble bring  up  this  Cid  bono  objection.  Referring  to  certain 
spiritual  phenomena  an  editor  remarks  :  ' '  Their  existence 
as  a  class  once  being  granted,  we  fail  to  discover  among  the 
facts  a  single  one  possessing  either  esthetic  beauty,  intel- 
lectual originalit}^,  or  material  usefulness."  To  all  which 
the  obvious  reply  is :  If  the  facts  are  admitted,  as  you 
grant,  then  3^our  complaint  of  their  nonconformit}^  with  3'our 
esthetic  sensibilities  should  be  addressed  to  the  Author  of 
Nature,  and  not  to  the  recorder  of  the  facts. 

In  a  discourse  before  the  "  Concord  School  of  Philoso- 
phy" (1880),  the  Rev.  Dr.  F.  D.  Hedge  remarked  of  Spir- 
itualism :  "  Science  has  examined  its  pretensions  and  pro- 
nounced them  groundless."  I  am  unwilling  to  suppose  that 
Dr.  Hedge  would  wilfully  misrepresent  a  fact,  but  the  re- 
verse of  what  he  here  affirms  is  the  truth.  Eminent  men 
of  science  are  every  day  contradicting  his  assertion  ;  and  I 
am  confident  that  Dr.  Hedge  cannot  name  one  man  of  high 
scientific  authority  who  has  ever  carefully  investigated  Spir- 
itualism and  pronounced  it  "  groundless."  Dr.  G.  Bloede, 
a  well-known  German  investigator,  resident  in  Brooklyn, 
N.  Y.,  writes  me  that  his  correspondent,  Zollner,  Professor 
of  Physics  and  Astronomy  in  the  University  of  Leipzig, 
describes  the   state  of  Spiritualism  in  Germany  (August, 


254  SPIRIT-COMMUNICATIONS. 

1880)  as  being  such  as  to  interest  the  best  scientific  minds  ; 
and  I  learn  that  "  the  3^oung  men  have  caught  the  infec- 
tion, and  are  experimenting  for  themseh^es." 

Tlie  so-called  "investigations"  of  Huxley  and  T^^ndall 
■were,  if  we  may  credit  their  own  accounts,  farcically  super- 
ficial. The  de  liaut  en  has  air  with  which  these  and  other 
specialists,  really  knowing  nothing  of  our  facts,  afi'ect  to 
look  down  on  them,  widely  attested  as  thc}^  are,  seems  to 
partake  at  once  of  arrogance  and  alarm.  The  German 
Schopenhauer  saj^s :  "The  gentlemen  of  the  crucible  and 
the  retort  must  bring  it  home  to  themselves  that  mere 
chemistry  may  enable  a  man  to  be  an  apothecarj^,  but  that 
it  does  not  make  him  a  philosopher.  Certain  kindred  spirits 
among  the  naturalists,  too,  should  understand  that  a  man 
ma}^  be  a  consummate  zoologist,  have  the  sixtj'  sorts  of 
apes  strung  together  in  perfect  order,  yet,  knowing  nothing 
besides,  be  on  the  whole  an  ignorant  man,  merely  one  of 
the  vulgar." 

In  reply  to  a  complaint  that  spiritual  communications  are 
not  to  be  trusted,  my  friend  Thomas  Shorter  wisely  re- 
marked :  "  Well,  perhaps  that  is  the  very  lesson  they  were 
chiefly  designed  to  teach  3'ou."  An  intelligence  claiming 
to  be  spiritual  gave  the  following  through  a  planchette : 

"It  is  one  of  the  important  providential  designs  of  these 
manifestations  to  teach  mankind  that  spirits  in  general 
maintahi  the  characters  that  they  formed  to  themselves 
during  their  earthl}^  life  —  that,  indeed,  they  are  the  identi- 
cal persons  they  were  while  dwelhng  in  the  flesh  —  hence, 
that  while  there  are  just,  truthful,  wise,  and  Christian  spir- 
its, there  are  also  spirits  addicted  to  lying,  profanity,  ob- 
scenity, mischief,  and  violence,  and  spirits  who  deny  God 
and  religion,  just  as  the^^  did  while  in  3'our  world.  It  has 
become  very  necessary  for  mankind  to  know  all  this  ;  it 
certainly  could  in  no  other  way  be  so  eff'ectuall}^  made 
known  as  by  an  actual  manifestation  of  it ;  and  it  is  just  as 
necessar}'  that  you  should  see  the  dark  side  as  the  hrhjht 
side  of  the  picture." 


CUMULATIVE   TESTIMONY.  255 

That  there  are  some  medial  communications  not  un- 
worthy the  powers  of  what  we  might  suppose  to  be  an  ad- 
vanced spirit,  is  a  fact  which  any  candid  person  of  good 
literarj'  judgment  will,  on  examination,  have  to  admit. 

The  utterances  of  trance-mediums  at  times  carry  with 
them,  b}'-  the  force  of  internal  evidence,  the  conviction  of 
tJie  identit}^  of  the  communicating  spirit.  Circumstances 
foreign  to  the  medium's  knowledge,  and  not  only  unknown 
to  the  sitter,  but  contrar}'  to  his  own  belief,  are  brought  up, 
and  subsequently  found  bj'  him  to  be  true.  Mrs.  Brown 
(formerl}'  Mrs.  Fish),  w^hen  in  New  York,  in  1852,  used  to 
give  messages  which  bore  the  stamp  of  genuineness.  One 
evening  while  Mr.  E.  W.  Capron,  author  of  "  Modern  Spir- 
itualism, its  Facts  and  Fanaticisms "  (1855),  was  visiting 
her,  two  3'oung  men  from  Tennessee  came  in.  One  of 
them  asked  if  a  spirit  could  communicate  with  liim,  and 
was  answered  in  the  affirmative.  "What  spirit  is  it?" 
"Your  father."  The  young  man  then  wrote  down  on  a 
piece  of  paper  the  following  question  :  "  B}^  what  means  did 
3'ou  die?"  Immediately  the  alphabet  was  called  for,  and 
the  vv'ord  poisoned  spelled  out.  The  young  man  started 
with  evident  astonishment,  for  he  did  not  anticipate  so 
prompt  and  correct  a  reply.  He  then  asked  if  his  father 
had  an3^thing  to  communicate  to  him,  and  received  the  fol- 
lowing : 

"  M}^  son,  lift  3'our  thoughts  to  God  and  remember  your 
wrongs  no  more.  To  dwell  upon  the  past  will  retard  3'our 
progress  and  blight  3'our  future  prospects.  Your  path  leads 
on  to  glory ;  then  labor  to  overcome  evil  with  good,  and  a 
crown  of  righteousness  will  be  3'ours  in  time  and  eternity. 
Your  affectionate  father, 

Henry  Champion." 

The  3'oung  man  then  said  that  his  father  was  murdered 
by  poison  administered  by  a  brother,  who  had  escaped  the 
penalty  of  the  law.     The  son  declared  that  he  had  been  for 


256  SPIRIT-COMMUNICATIONS. 

3'ears  determined  on  avenging  his  father's  death.  Unlike 
Hamlet's  spirit-father,  this  one  advised  his  son  to  dispel  all 
A'indictive  feelings,  and  the  son  declared  that  from  that 
hour  his  schemes  of  revenge  would  be  given  up.  Here  we 
have  all  the  elements  of  a  genuine  communication :  remark- 
able clairvoyance,  noble,  christian  advice,  forgiveness  of  an 
injur}',  good  plain  English,  and  marks  of  affection. 

A  little  girl  was  present  with  her  father,  both  unknown 
to  Mrs.  Brown.  The  little  girl's  hand  was  moved,  and  she 
gave  sio'us  of  beins:  a  sensitive  for  writino-.  The  followins: 
kind  admonition  was  then  spelled  out  to  the  father  through 
Mrs.  Brown  : 

"  I  feel  deeply  interested  in  3'our  little  daughter.  I  want 
you,  therefore,  to  be  led  according  to  3'our  own  good  judg- 
ment and  reason  in  regard  to  taking  her  into  promiscuous 
parties.  She  should  not  always  be  led  by  advice  which  she 
thinks  comes  from  pure  and  elevated  spirits.  My  dear  David, 
I  will  give  you  a  rule  b}'  which  you  and  Mary  shall  alwa3's 
be  guided,  as  you  are  responsible  for  the  protection  and 
elevation  of  3'our  children.  When  a  spirit  assumes  author- 
ity; in  giving  directions,  follow  not  such  direction.'  God 
made  you  a  free  man,  and  he  has  given  you  light  and  liberty 
to  act  accordiugh'.  When  a  spirit  speaks  unreasonable 
things,  be  kind  to  him,  but  maintain  your  own  ground,  and 
gentlj'  lead  him  along  in  the  paths  of  progression." 

In  this  case,  the  names  of  '^  David  "  and  "  Mar}' "  were 
entirel}"  unknown  to  the  medium,  or  to  an}'  of  the  company 
present  except  the  ones  to  whom  the  message  was  delivered. 
Instances  like  these  are  not  so  rare  as  many  may  sup- 
pose. The  intent  is  good,  the  advice  excellent,  and  the 
language  unexceptionable.  The  clairvoyance  implied  in 
the  knowledge  of  the  names  of  father  and  daughter  is 
another  reason  why  the  communication  might  be  safely 
accepted  as  genuine.  The  internal  evidence  in  both  these 
cases  is  very  strong,  and  would  justify  the  parties  receiving 
the  messages  m  having  faith  in  their  supposed  origin. 


CUMULATIVE   TESTIMONY.  257 

Before  me  is  a  pamphlet  of  commnnications  compiled  by 
my  friend,  Thomas  R.  Hazard,  of  Rhode  Island,  from  the 
utterances  of  the  late  John  C.  Grinnell,  of  Newport,  R.  I., 
while  apparent!}^  in  an  unconscious  state.  Let  us  see  if  they 
are  utterh^  devoid  of  sense  and  purpose  : 

"...  The  soul-bod_y  that  is  born  with  the  child  has  a 
greater  effect  on  its  destin}'  in  the  spirit-world  than  its  edu- 
cation on  earth  has,  although  it  carries  its  earthly  proclivi- 
ties with  it.  These  causes  and  effects  should  be  under- 
stood, in  order  to  understand  the  laws  of  progression.   .   .   . 

"Thus  the  soul  and  spirit  unite  and  constitute  an  in- 
dividual immortal  being.  If  the  spirit  did  not  unite  with 
and  take  the  soul  with  it,  there  would  be  no  individuality 
for  the  spirit  to  communicate  through,  but  it  would  be  a 
mere  essence  floating  about,  as  it  were,  a  thing  of  life 
without  consciousness.  Thus  the  soul  is  the  spirit-hody  not 
only  in  earth-hfe,  but  in  immortal  life  through  eternity.  .  .  . 

"  Ever3'thing  in  existence  is  continuall}^  revolving  and 
drawn  onward  to  higher  conditions  of  finer  and  finer  qual- 
ities of,  spirit  magnetism,  leaving  the  grosser  to  assist  in 
advancing  states  of  being  still  more  gross.  There  can  be 
no  stillness  or  cessation  to  the  action  of  the  soul,  nor  can 
there  be  to  the  inspiration  of  the  spirit  within  the  soul. 
For  the  spirit  must,  b}^  divine  love,  ever  vibrate  and  strive 
within  the  soul,  to  qualify  it  for  its  immortal  condition.  .  .  . 

"The  spirit  constitutes  the  light  and  life  within,  whilst 
the  individual  soul  has  the  power  to  give  itself  an}^  direc- 
tion, whether  for  good  or  evil,  it  chooses He  who 

accepts  his  soul's  inspiration  is  a  free  man,  but  not  other- 
wise, as  he  has  to  conform  to  other  personalities  that  go  to 
make  up  that  which  he  might  call  his  own,  through  the  in- 
grafting of  their  ideas  on  his  individualit}^  or  soul  memor3\ 
.  .  .  When  man  is  thus  individualized,  the  simplicity  and 
divine  harmony  of  his  nature  become  a  fountain  of  joy, 
whence  ever  flows  the  expression,  I  am  free!  I  am  free! 
Whilst  to  those  whose  souls  have  become  darkened  and 
shackled,  as  it  were,  by  the  acceptance  of  the  personal 
teachings  or  ideas  of  their  fellow-mortals,  life  becomes  the 
enjoyment  of  a  dream  rather  than  a  reality.   .   .   . 

"The  spirit  is  the  entire  hfe  of  the  soul  and  the  body, 
and  without  it  nothing  whatever  can  be  uttered.  But,  al- 
17 


258  SPIRIT-COMMUNICATIONS. 

though  the  dictates  of  the  spirit  are  alwa^-s  truthful,  still 
the  same  power  that  is  couferrecl  on  the  soul  to  accept  and 
give  forth  the  truth,  maj  be,  and  is  in  countless  instances, 
directed  through  the  promptings  of  its  coarser  desires  into 
false  channels  of  expression  and  communication,  and  thus 
used  for  sinister  purposes  and  ends.  In  striving  to  express 
the  truth  through  the  soul  organization,  we  thus  see  that 
sj^irit  has  many  counteracting  influences  to  contend  with, 
which  cause  many  unreliable  communications  both  in  the 
material  and  spirit  world.  .   .   . 

''The  kingdom  of  God  is  without  and  within.  As 
existence  expresses  everj'thing  that  is  individual,  so  does 
sjnrit  everything  that  is  infinite  and  divine.  As  we  could 
have  no  life  without  the  Divine  Spirit,  so  we  could  have  no 
conscious  existence  without  the  individual  soul.  Thus 
spirit  and  existence  make  up  the  great  divine  attribute  of 
the  Supreme  Being.   .   .   . 

"As  the  life  and  the  spirit  are  imparted  to  existence, 
so  each  soul  or  individualit}^  has  a  separate  self- existence, 
but  all  under  the  control  of  the  Divine  Spirit.  But  all 
quality  of  soul  is  not  all  the  same,  as  it  depends  upon  the 
amount  of  inspiration  that  each  individual  soul  has  re- 
ceived and  accepted  of  the  spirit,  —  a  portion  of  which  is 
given  to  all,  and  which  in  itself  is  alwaj's  the  same  pure 
and  undefiled  essence,  as  is  the  great  Fountain  of  all  spirit 
w^hence  it  is  derived.  .•  .  .' 

' '  Throughout  all  existence  it  is  the  spirit  that  makes 
the  shape  or  form  of  the  thing  that  exists,  whether  it  be  a 
grain  of  sand  or  a  living  being.*  As  all  existence  is  but  an 
expression  of  the  divine  will,  so  should  each  individual 
existence  that  has  a  larger  share  of  the  divine  expression 
within  itself,  impart  of  its  abundance  to  those  who  have 
less.     None  should  be  turned  awa}'.   .   .   . 

"We  are  all  independent,  both  in  the  structure  of  our 
individual  being  and  in  our  individual  progress,  and  con- 

*  (x.  F.  Fechncr,  the  eminent  German  physicist  and  philosopher,  who,  as  the 
N.  Y.  Nation  Bays,  "scandalized  German  society  by  entering  the  ranks  of  the 
Spiritualists,"  in  1877,  teaches  "that  every  diamond,  every  crystal,  every  plant 
and  star,  has  its  own  individual  soul,  besides  man  and  the  animals;  that  there  is 
a  hierarchy  of  souls  from  the  lowest  forms  of  matter  up  to  the  world-soul;  and 
that  the  spirits  of  the  departed  hold  psychic  communication  with  souls  that  are 
still  connected  with  a  human  body." 


CUMULATIVE   TESTIMONY.  250 

sequently  we  must  ever  become  the  architect  of  our  soul's 
unfoldment  and  progress.  .  .  .  As  we  have  the  power  to 
seclude  and  darken  the  spirit  in  the  cloud  of  our  indi- 
vidual selfishness,  so  too  we  have  the  power  to  shut  our- 
selves out  from  a  higher  and  more  celestial  spirit-knowl- 
edge. So  it  depends  upon  ourselves  to  choose  what  we 
shall  be." 

The  thought  here  is  clearly  conveyed,  and  could  have 
come  from  no  ordinary  mind.  Of  the  medium,  Mr.  Haz- 
ard tells  us  :  "  He  was  from  a  child  among  the  poorest  of 
the  poor,  and  almost  wholly  uneducated,  never  having  been 
to  school  six  months  in  his  life.  He  had  but  little  mental 
ability  of  an}^  kind."  The  psychological  theory,  of  which 
this  illiterate  individual  was  the  utterer,  would  seem  to  be 
like  that  of  Paul,  who,  in  his  first  epistle  to  the  Thessa- 
lonians  (v.  23),  writes  :  "  And  the  very  God  of  peace  sanc- 
tify you  wholly  ;  and  I  pray  God  j^our  ivhole  spirit  and  soul 
and  body  be  preserved  blameless  unto  the  coming  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ."  Here  we  have  the  trichotomy  of  (1) 
spirit  (divinely  influent,  primary,  life-giving)  ;  (2)  soul  or 
spirit-body  (ps3^cho-physical,  organic,  intermediary,  essen- 
tially immortal,  but  potentially  mutable  in  its  corporeal 
relations)  ;  (3)  earth-body  (i)h3^sical,  ultimate,  chemical, 
and  transitor3^  in  its  parts,  but  indestructible  as  to  its  dis- 
sipated atomic  constituents) .  Thus  the  action  of  the  spir- 
itual upon  the  material,  or  the  non-atomic  upon  the  atomic, 
becomes  intelligible  b3^  virtue  of  the  intervening  link,  and 
the  puzzle  of  the  metaph3^sicians,  who  marvel  how  mind 
can  rule  matter,  is  solved. 

I  am  indebted  to  m3^  esteemed  friend,  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Watson,  of  Mempbis,  Tenn.,  formerly  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  for  calling  m3^  attention  to  the  following 
remarkable  passage  in  the  writings  of  John  Wesle3^,  who, 
commenting  on  the  verse  I  have  quoted  from  Paul,  enumer- 
ating spirit^  soul,  and  body  as  a  trinit3",  says  : 


260  SPIRIT-COMMUNICATIONS. 

"  Is  not  the  body  that  portion  of  organized  matter  which 
ever}^  man  receives  in  the  womb  —  with  which  he  is  born 
into  the  world,  and  which  he  carries  with  him  to  the  grave? 
At  present  it  is  connected  with  flesh  and  blood,  bnt  these 
are  not  the  bod}' — thej  are  onlj^  the  temporarj^  clothing, 
which  it  wholh'  pnts  off  at  the  grave.  The  soul  seems  to  be 
the  immediate  clothing  of  the  spirit^  the  vehicle  with  which 
it  is  connected  from  its  first  existence,  and  which  is  never 
separated  from  it  either  in  life  or  in  death.  Probably  it 
consists  of  ethereal  or  electric,  the  purest  of  all  matter.  It 
does  not  seem  to  be  affected  by  the  death  of  the  bodj^,  but 
envelops  the  separate  as  it  does  the  embodied  spirit." 

Critically  analj'zed,  the  word  to,  in  the  third  line,  should 
be  beyond,  as  it  contradicts  the  plain  meaning  of  the  whole. 
Wesley,  as  the  reader  already  knows,  had  the  spiritual 
phenomena  in  his  own  family,  and  declared  that  "  with  his 
latest  breath"  he  should  "  protest  against  giving  up  to  in- 
fidels these  proofs  of  the  soul's  immortality."  * 

This,  then,  is  the  summing  up  :  —  (1)  It  does  not  require 
the  theorj'  of  independent  spirits  to  explain  a  large  major- 
it}^  of  the  phenomena  we  get  through  mediums  for  writing 
b}^  their  own  hands  or  for  so-called  trance-speaking.  (2) 
That  mediums  may  be  impressed  b}^  spirits  to  personate 
them,  or  to  utter  their  thoughts,  or  to  write  their  words,  is 
however  distinctl}"  admitted.  (3)  Man  being  a  spirit,  even 
while  fettered  to  matter,  has  spiritual  faculties,  which,  in 
certain  abnormal  states,  may  be  manifested.  (4)  A  trance- 
medium,  in  a  state  of  limited  consciousness,  maj^  utter 
thoughts  generated  or  appropriated  by  himself  in  another 

*  In  February,  1771,  Swedenborg  wrote  to  Wesley:  "  I  have  been  informed 
in  the  world  of  spirits  that  you  have  a  strong  desire  to  converse  with  rac.  I 
shall  be  happy  to  see  you,  if  you  will  favor  me  with  a  visit,"  "Wesley  confessed 
he  had  wished  to  see  Swedenborg,  but  had  mentioned  his  wish  to  no  one.  He 
wrote  that  his  engagements  were  such  he  could  not  be  in  London  for  six 
months.  Swedenborg  replied  that  a  visit  would  then  be  too  late,  as  he  should 
be  in  the  spirit-world  March  29tli,  never  more  to  return.  Wesley  could  not 
break  his  other  engagements,  and  so  they  never  met.  Swedenborg  died  the 
day  he  had  named. 


CUMULATIVE    TESTIMONY.  261 

and  discrete  state  of  consciousness  ;  and  he  may  himself 
originate  the  impression  that  he  is  uttering  the  thoughts  of 
some  spirit,  once  eminent  in  the  earth-life.  It  is  not  de- 
nied, however,  that  the  false  impression  may  be  insinuated 
b^'  some  independent  spirit ;  nor  is  it  denied  that  the  "  con- 
trol "  ma}',  in  rare  instances,  be  the  individual  he  medially 
claims  to  be.  (5)  The  phenomena  of  distinct  states  of  con- 
sciousness must  be  studied  for  more  light  upon  all  these 
questions. 

In  an  article  in  Scribner's  Magazine^  charging  Spiritual- 
ists with  accepting  "  as  a  fact  that  which  only  has  its  l3ing 
semblance,"  Dr.  Holland,  the  editor,  a  believer  in  the  Bible, 
tells  us  that  he  does  not  regard  our  facts  as  a  priori  im- 
l^robable.     He  sa3's  : 

' '  In  both  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament  w' e  have  mul- 
tiplied records  of  the  communications  of  spiritual  existences 
with  men  and  women  in  the  flesh.  The  doctrine  of  demo- 
niacal possession  is  taught  w-ith  great  distinctness.  The 
ministry  of  angels,  the  return  to  the  earth  of  those  long 
dead,  familiar  intercourse  wath  Christ  after  his  resurrection, 
are  all  in  the  hue  of  phenomena  claimed  as  genuine  b}'  mod- 
ern Spiritualists.  It  is,  or  would  seem  to  be,  easy  for  a 
Christian  to  believe  that  visitants  from  the  unseen  world 
are  about  him,  influencing  his  mind,  and  endeavoring  to 
make  themselves  known.  That  is  precisel}^  w'hat  the}'  used 
to  do  in  the  plden  time.  Why  should  the}"  not  do  it  now 
as  well  as  they  did  it  then  ?  " 

This  question  of  his  own  putting  Dr.  Holland  makes  no 
attempt  to  answer.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  he  is  quite 
willing  to  receive  from  David,  Ezekiel,  Matthew,  Mark, 
Luke,  and  John,  accounts  of  phenomena  that  happened 
centuries  ago  ;  but  similar  phenomena,  vouched  for  by  many 
of  the  principal  scientific  men  of  our  own  day,  he  rejects 
as  "lying  semblances."  That  a  writing  came  to  Jehoram 
from  Elijah,  the  prophet,  in  the  spirit-world,  is  quite  credi- 
ble ;  but  that  independent  w^riting  came  through  Gulden- 


262  ZOLLNER    GRASPS    A    SPIRIT-HAND. 

stiibbe,    Watkins,   Powell,  Phillips,  Mrs.    Simpson,    Mrs. 
Mosser,  aad  Slade,  must  be  rejected  as  a  delusion. 

It  has  been  seen  that  some  of  the  leading  German  ph^'s- 
icists  admit  our  phenomena.  Zollner  testifies  to  the  spirit- 
hand.  He  sa^'s  in  his  "Transcendental  Physics,"  as 
translated  b}^  Charles  Carleton  Masse}',  of  London,  a  philo- 
sophic student  and  a  close  observer  of  our  phenomena : 

"  Slade  sat  at  his  usual  place  ;  at  his  right  Frau  von 
Hoffman,  I  next,  and  Herr  von  Hoffman  at  my  right.  We 
had  already  laid  our  hands,  linked  together,  on  the  table, 
when  I  remarked  it  was  a  pit}'  we  had  forgotten  to  place  a 
small  hand -bell  on  the  table.  At  the  same  moment  it  be- 
gan ringing  in  the  corner  of  the  room  at  my  right  front,  at 
least  two  metres  fi'om  the  middle  of  the  table ;  and  the 
room  being  faintl}'  illuminated  by  gaslight  from  the  street, 
we  saw  a  small  hand-bell  slowly  hover  down  from  the 
stand  on  which  it  stood,  lay  itself  down  on  the  carpet  of 
the  floor,  and  move  itself  forward  b}'  jerks,  till  it  got  under 
our  table.  Here  immediatol}'  it  began  ringing  in  the  most 
livel}^  manner,  and  while  we  kept  our  hands  joined  together 
as  above  described  on  the  table,  a  hand  suddenlj'  appeared 
through  an  opening  in  the  middle  of  the  curtain  with  the 
bell,  which  it  placed  on  the  middle  of  the  table  in  front  of 
us.  I  hereupon  expressed  the  wish  to  be  allowed  to  hold 
that  hand  once  firml}'  in  m}'  own.  I  had  scarcely  said  this, 
when  the  hand  appeared  again  out  of  the  opening,  and 
now,  while  with  the  palm  of  m}'  left  hand  I  covered  and 
held  fast  both  Slade's  hands,  with  my  right  I  seized  the 
hand  protruded  from  the  opening,  and  thus  shook  hands 
with  a  friend  from  the  other  world.  It  had  quite  a  living 
warmth,  and  returned  m}'  pressure  heartil}'." 

From  St.  Petersburg  we  get  the  testimou}'  of  Boutlerof, 
Wagner,  and  Aksakow  to  similar  phenomena.  Aksakow, 
Imperial  TrWj  Counsellor,  testifies  to  the  slate- writing 
phenomenon,  as  got  by  the  Grand  Duke  Constantine.  He 
sa3's :  "I  can,  as  a  witness,  testify  that  the  writing  was 
produced  upon  a  slate  which  the  Orand  Duke  alone  held 
under  and  close  to  the  table,  while  Slade's  hands  were  on 


CUMULATIVE   TESTIMONY.  263 

the  table."  This  corresponds  to  my  experhnent  with  Wat- 
kins,  only  I  held  the  slate  unconditionally  open  to  the  light 
in  my  left  hand,  the  medium  standing  four  feet  off,  and  not 
touching  the  slate. 

Here  is  what  William  Crookes,  F.E.S.,  has  to  say 
(1874)  in  regard  to  his  experience  with  the  so-called  spirit- 
hand  : 

"  Under  the  strictest  test  conditions,  I  have  more  than 
once  had  a  solid,  self-luminous,  crj'staUine  bod}^  placed  in 
my  hand  by  a  hand  loliich  did  not  belong  to  any  person  in 
the  room.  In  the  light  I  have  seen  a  luminous  cloud  hover 
oyer  a  heliotrope  on  a  side-table,  break  a  sprig  off,  and 
carry  the  sprig  to  a  lad}^ ;  and  on  some  occasions  I  have 
seen  a  similar  luminous  cloud  visibly  condense  to  the  form 
of  a  hand,  and  carry  small  objects  about." 

The  testimony  in  regard  to  this  phenomenon  of  the  ma- 
terialized hand  is  so  ample  that  I  should  be  justified  in 
including  it  as  part  of  a  scientific  basis.  For  the  past 
twentj'-five  3'ears  I  have  repeatedly  seen  or  felt  the  materi- 
alized hand  under  test  conditions. 

(The  full  fruits  of  these  revelations  of  spirit  power,  with 
the  philosophj'  that  must  grow  out  of  them,  under  the  fear- 
less auspices  of  modern  science,  unchecked  by  the  super- 
stitious fears  which  paral3'zed  investigation  in  ancient  and 
mediaeval  times,  must  be  the  result  of  man}''  conflicts  with 
unbehef  and  of  a  long  lapse  of  time.  The  misconceptions 
and  follies  which  attend  the  science  in  its  inchoate  stage, 
are  the  unavoidable  accompaniments  of  its  transitional 
development.  Thej^  must  give  way  eventually  to  an  an- 
thropology based  on  accepted  facts,  and  comprehending,  in 
its  sj^nthesis,  the  spiritual,  psychical,  and  phj-sical  nature 
of  man. 

Thus  far  the  assailants  of  spiritualism  have  done  nothing 
but  call  it  hard  names.  They  have  confounded  with  the 
great  subject  itself  the  human  abuses,  follies,  and  errors 
attendino^  it,  but  have  not  solved  or  made  less  credible  one 


264  CLERICAL   OBJECTIONS. 

of  our  facts  ;  have  not  accounted  for  the  shnplest  of  our 
phenomena  ;  and  yet  the}'  think  to  put  a  stop  to  investiga- 
tion by  telUng  us  of  its  evils  and  dangers. 

"  The  danger  from  Spirituahsm,"  says  the  editor  of 
Sunday  Afternoon^  "  consists  chie%  in  the  ungirtness  it 
induces  in  all  thought  and  conduct ;  the  evil  it  has  wrought 
in  this  direction  is  immense."  Which,  being  interpreted, 
means :  Spiritualism,  like  every  great  emancipating  truth, 
is  an  iconoclast  and  a  revolutionist.  It  frees  men  from 
old  shackles  of  doctrine,  and  makes  them,  what  they  ought 
to  be,  free-thiiikers^  in  the  large  and  good  sense.  In  the 
casting  off  of  shackles,  some  undisciplined  minds  maj^  be 
mischievously  affected  ;  just  as  in  a  wholesome  national 
revolution  mischief  may  be  wrought  bj^  bringing  the  scum 
to  the  top,  and  tempting  thieves  and  demagogues  with  op- 
portunities which  the}^  might  not  have  had  under  a  despot- 
ism. And  so  when  the  editor  last  quoted  sa3's  that  Spirit- 
ualism has  wrought  immense  evil,  all  the  significance  of  the 
declaration  is  in  its  analogy  with  the  assertion  that  the 
American  revolution,  or  the  Lutheran  reformation,  did  the 
same.  If  Spiritualism  in  this  sense  has  done  harm,  the' 
good  it  has  done,  and  is  likely  to  do,  may  preponderate. 

All  this  short-sighted  antagonism  is  unphilosophical  and 
unjust.  Spiritualism  is  a  synthesis  of  facts,  and  ever}^ 
investigator  of  those  facts  is  at  liberty  to  put  upon  them 
what  construction  he  pleases.  ]\Iy  own  inference  is,  that 
they  conclusively  prove  that  natural  phenomena  or  material 
existences  are  the  raiment  or  visible  appearance  of  some 
inner  invisible  power  ;  that  when  we  see  a  material  hand, 
replete  with  life,  and  obedient  to  will,  created  in  the  void 
air,  without  tricks  or  illusions  of  any  kind,  we  have  reason  to 
infer  that  there  is  a  real  form  and  a  real  intelhgence  inte- 
rior to  or  ruling  the  outward  material  member,  in  such  a 
case  ;  that  the  matter  used  is  transient,  fleeting,  adjective,  to 
the  underlying,  substantive  hand  of  the  spirit ;  or  else  that 


CUMULATIVE   TESTIMONY.  265 

the  spirit,  in  its  power  over  matter,  can  independently 
present  a  simulacrum  of  the  mortal  hand,  and  make  it  in- 
dicative  of  mind  and  life. 

In  a  communication  to  the  Royal  Society  (1879)  William 
Crookes  gives  a  condensed  summary  of  the  evidence  in 
proof  of  the  existence  of  a  fourth  state  of  matter.  In 
conclusion  he  says : 

"  That  which  we  call  matter  is  nothing  more  than  the 
effect  upon  our  senses  of  the  movements  of  molecules. 
The  space  covered  by  the  motion  of  molecules  has  no  more 
right  to  be  called  matter  than  the  air  traversed  bj^  a  rifle- 
bullet  has  to  be  called  lead.  From  this  point  of  view,  then, 
matter  is  but  a  mode  of  motion ;  at  the  absolute  zero  of 
temperature  the  inter-molecular  movement  would  stop,  and, 
although  something  retaining  the  properties  of  inertia  and 
weight  would  remain,  matter,  as  w^e  know  it,  would  cease 
to  exist." 

These  considerations  help  us  to  a  nearer  comprehension 
of  the  fact  that  to  spirit-power  matter  is  a  thing  very  dif- 
ferent from  what  it  is  to  our  earth-bound  faculties. 

Some  persons  who  admit  our  phenomena  are  disposed  to 
refer  them  wholly  to  the  action  of  evil  spirits.  The  Cath- 
olic doctors  do  this  very  generallj^,  though  they  make  an 
exception  when  the  manifestations  favor  their  own  religious 
views.  Christ  was  more  liberal.  That  he  believed  in- 
tensely in  the  action  of  evil  spirits  is  manifest.  He  said, 
"  Simon,  Simon,  Satan  hath  desired  to  have  thee,  that  he 
may  sift  thee  as  wheat ;  but  I  have  prayed  for  thee  that  thy 
faith  fail  not."  Again:  "Get  thee  behind  me,  Satan." 
Again :  ' '  This  is  your  hour  and  that  of  the  powers  of 
darkness."  And  so  Paul:  "We  are  not  wrestling  with 
flesh  and  blood,  but  with  principalities  and  powers,  and  the 
leaders  of  the  darkness  of  this  world,  and  against  wicked 
spirits  in  high  places." 

*  M.  Caraille  Flammarion,  the  eminent  French  astronomer,  writes  (1880) :  ''It 
is  by  the  study  of  Spiritualism  that  Mr.  Crookes  has  been  led  to  his  magnifi- 
cent discoveries." 


266  Christ's  spiritual  doctrine. 

But  that  Christ  and  his  apostles  also  believed  in  a  coun- 
teracting force  of  good  spirits  is  apparent  from  many  pas- 
sages. To  Nathaniel  he  said:  "Thou  shalt  see  greater 
things  than  these.  Hereafter  3^e  shall  see  heaven  open, 
and  angels  of  God  ascending  and  descending  on  the  Son 
of  man."  Recall  also  the  passage  where  he  saj's  of  chil- 
dren :  ' '  Despise  not  one  of  these  little  ones  ;  for  I  say 
unto  you,  that  in  heaven  their  angels  (guardian  spirits)  do 
always  behold  the  face  of  my  Father."  When  he  was 
transfigured  on  the  mount,  Moses  and  Elijah  appeared  to 
him.  In  the  garden,  an  angel  (spirit  —  see  Rev.  xxii.  9) 
appeared  and  ministered  to  him.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that 
those  priests  who  hold  that  all  the  spirits  communicating 
with  the  laity  must  needs  be  evil,  can  hardly  make  it  appear 
that  they  have  Christ's  authorit}^  on  their  side. 

The  Rev.  Joseph  Cook  has  drawn  down  upon  himself  the 
attacks  of  some  of  his  evangelical  brethren  because  he  and 
his  friends  had  the  candor  and  the  courage  to  testify  to 
certain  objective  phenomena  which  they  witnessed  in  my 
librar3\  Upon  these  they  are  at  liberty  to  put  what  con- 
struction they  please  ;  to  explain  them  by  an  undiscovered 
psj'chic  force,  or  by  the  co-operation  of  evil  spirits,  or  b}^ 
nothing  in  particular.  It  is  enough  for  Spiritualism  tha,t 
they  have  not  ignored  or  misrepresented  what  actually 
occurred. 

That  Mr.  Cook,  accepting  the  Bible  as  infalhble,  is  justi- 
fied in  his  fears,  as  to  the  ill  efl^ects  of  Spiritualism,  by  the 
cautions  against  necromancy  which  he  finds  in  the  Old 
Testament,  no  one  will  deny.  I  think  that  we  Spiritualists 
can  afford  to  be  denounced  as  meddling  with  forbidden 
keys,  so  long  as  he  has  had  the  honesty  and  the  intrepidity 
to  testifj^  to  occurrences  the  very  mention  of  which  is  an 
offence  to  man}^,  and  the  admission  of  which  he  knew 
might  lead  to  unjust  aspersions  upon  his  motives.  These, 
I  cannot  doubt,  were  the  promptings  of  an  earnest  and 


CUMULATIVE  TESTIMONY.  267 

disinterested  truth-seeker,  not  stojjping  to  weigh  adverse 
consequences,  and  not  hesitating  to  proclaim  what  he  had 
witnessed.  I  shall  not  grudge  him  the  exercise  of  the 
same  fearlessness  in  construing  the  phenomena,  which  he 
has  shown  in  testifying  to  them,  however  widelj^^  I  may 
differ  from  his  interpretations. 

Are  there  no  cases  in  the  Church,  differing  from  that  of 
Mr.  Cook  only  in  the  fact  that  the  recipients  of  the  truth 
keep  it  to  themselves?  Yes,  there  are  many  such.  I  have 
m3'self  been  present  at  seances  with  two  eminent  Unitarian 
clerg3'men,  now  deceased,  —  one  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hall,  of 
Dorchester,  Mass.,  the  other  the  Rev.  Dr.  George  Putnam, 
of  Roxbmy,  —  both  of  whom  admitted  to  me  that  they 
accepted  the  phenomena  as  genuine,  beyond  all  possibility 
of  collusion  or  trick.  Miss  Jennie  Lord,  now  Mrs.  Webb, 
was  the  medium,  and,  though  it  was  a  dark  circle,  the  evi- 
dences of  a  preterhuman  power  at  work  that  could  see  in 
the  dark  as  well  as  in  the  light,  were  conclusive.  The  tan- 
gible spirit-hand,  the  playing  on  instruments,  the  placing 
of  a  full  tumbler  of  water  at  the  lips  of  the  different  sit- 
ters, so  that  not  a  drop  was  spilled,  the  violent,  repeated 
dashing  of  the  tambourine  on  the  table,  and  then  on  the 
floor,  with  inconceivable  swiftness,  without  touching  one 
of  the  hands  placed  on  the  table,  —  and  all  this  in  the 
dark,  and  while  the  medium  was  held,  —  were  phenomena 
that  must  have  impressed  the  most  apathetic  as  preter- 
human. Both  these  reverend  doctors,  while  admitting  the 
genuineness  of  what  transpired,  excused  themselves  from 
saying  anything  about  it  publicly,  on  the  ground  that  it 
would  involve  them  in  controversy  ;  that  it  was  too  "  big  a 
subject "  for  them  to  take  up  at  their  age  ;  that  they  could 
not  investigate  further  without  giving  to  it  more  time 
than  they  could  spare  from  their  parochial  duties,  &c. 
Both  were  noble,  sincere  men,  and  if  they  had  been  as 
young  and  as  daring  as  Mr.  Cook,  the}"  would  doubtless 


268  PERSONAL    TESTINGS. 

not  have  allowed  the  phenomena  to  remain  sterile  in  their 
minds. 

I  also  took  the  well-known  Edinburgh  author  and  pub- 
lisher, the  late  Robert  Chambers,  then  in  America,  to  wit- 
ness the  manifestations  in  Miss  Lord's  presence.  But  he 
was  already  a  Spiritualist,  and  had  no  hesitation  in  recog- 
nizing them  as  among  the  most  convincing  he  had  ever 
experienced.  His  views  and  arguments  in  regard  to  the 
phenomena  are  clearly  set  forth  in  his  Introduction  to  the 
second  volume  of  the  Life  of  D.  D.  Home,  the  celebrated 
medium. 

I  subsequently  tested  the  phenomena  through  Miss  Lord 
several  times  in  my  own  library,  when  only  m}^  own  family 
and  a  single  friend  were  present.  There  was  no  conceiva- 
ble chance  for  an  abettor.  Under  test  conditions,  and 
while  the  medium's  hands  and  feet  were  held,  a  large  bass- 
viol  was  taken  from  the  corner  of  the  room  and  plaj'ed  on 
vigorousl}^  and  well.  Several  familiar  psalm  tunes,  among 
them  "  Coronation,"  were  accurately  given.  That  it  was  a 
preterhuman  loerformance  (judging  human  capacity  solely 
by  what  science  admits)  I  absolute^  know.  The  spirit 
operator  first  touched  us  all  on  the  head  with  the  viol-bow. 
The  spirit-hand,  twice  as  large  as  that  of  the  medium, 
proved  its  tangibility  by  being  placed  repeatedly  on  our 
heads  ;  it  took  down  the  hair  of  two  ladies  present,  and  care- 
fLill3^put  it  up  again,  and  indicated  in  various  ways  the  intel- 
ligence guiding  it  —  and  all  this  while  the  medium  was  held. 

If  any  other  witness  from  the  Church  is  wanted  besides 
Mr.  Cook,  I  could  refer  the  curious  to  the  estimable  Epis- 
copal bishop  of  Rhode  Island,  Mr.  Clark.  Towards  "in- 
terviewers^' he  may  be  reticent;  but  to  those  in  his  confi- 
dence he  may  narrate  experiences  far  transcending  those  to 
which  Mr.  Cook  has  testified  —  experiences  which,  if  ac- 
cepted, make  credible  the  re-appearance  of  Christ  in  the 
room  with  closed  doors. 


CUMULATIVE   TESTIMONY.  269 

Bishop  Clark  preaches  openly  the  Pauline  doctrine  of  a 
spiritual  body ;  thus  rejecting  or  superseding  the  unscien- 
tific notion  of  a  re-composition  of  the  material  remains. 
His  extreme  spiritualistic  views  and  his  long  entertained 
convictions  are  well  known  to  his  brethren  ;  and  there  has 
been  question  occasionally  of  a  convocation  to  consider  the 
heresj"  in  his  case ;  but  he  has  not  j^et  been  summoned  to 
the  bar  for  examination,  and  I  hardly  think  the  indiscretion 
will  ever  be  attempted.  In  England  not  a  few  clerg3'men 
of  the  established  church  are  avowed  Spiritualists.  But  if 
the  elasticity  of  that  church  prevents  its  touching  Bishop 
Colenso,  it  may  well  spare  the  recipient  of  the  simple  belief 
in  continuous  life,  as  justified  b}'  the  demonstrated  facts  of 
Spiritualism. 

An  unprofessional  medium  testifies  that  the  following 
words  came  to  him  from  a  spirit :  "  The  spiritual  body  is 
made  up  by  deposits  of  human  thought  even  as  the  human 
material  body  is  sustained  by  food.  Hence  the  thoughts 
and  affections  of  the  heart  go  to  construct  the  spirit-body, 
enter  into  it,  become  it.  I  warn  you  how  3^ou  indulge  in 
thoughts  that  are  evil.  The  spiritual  body  does  not  change 
as  easil}^  as  you  imagine." 

Edmund  Spenser,  one  of  the  most  medially  gifted  of 
poets,  and  who  tells  us  that  "  all  that's  good  is  beautiful 
and  fair,"  plainly  inculcates  this  notion  of  a  spirit-body, 
made  fair  or  foul  by  the  habitual  character  of  our  thoughts. 
He  says : 

•'  So  every  spirit,  as  it  is  more  pure, 

And  hath  in  it  the  more  of  heavenly  light, 

So  it  the  fairer  body  doth  procure 

To  habit  in,  and  it  more  fairly  dight 

With  cheerful  grace  and  amiable  sight ; 

For  of  the  soul  the  body  form  doth  take  ; 

For  soul  is  form,  ^nd  doth  the  body  make." 


270  DISCRETE  MENTAL   STATES. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

DISCRETE    MENTAL    STATES. THE    FACT  ADMITTED    BY   MEDI- 
CAL   SCIENCE. INFERENCES     FROM    THE   PHENOMENON. — • 

SPIRIT-ANALOOIES. HARTMANN'S    THEORY     OF     THE     UN- 
CONSCIOUS. 

The  facts  already  recorded  show  that  the  human  mind 
is  SO  constituted  that  it  may  manifest  discrete,  or  entirely 
separate,  states  of  consciousness.  I  have  illustrated  this 
in  the  cases  of  Mrs.  Mowatt,  Miss  Re^^nolds,  and  others. 
In  the  case  of  Mrs.  Mowatt,  the  superior  consciousness  in- 
cluded the  lower ;  in  that  of  Miss  Reynolds,  the  con- 
sciousness of  each  state  was  entirel}^  distinct  from  the  other. 
Even  medical  science  admits  the  phenomenon  of  discrete 
states  in  cataleps}^  and  other  affections  ;  so  the  question  of 
its  realitj^  has  been  settled.  Indeed  the  phenomena  of  our 
dail}^  natural  sleep  confirm  it. 

But  as  the  subject  from  my  standpoint  introduces  views 
not  3^et  admitted  bj'  philosophy,  in  regard  to  the  nature  of 
consciousness,  a  somewhat  more  extended  survey  will  be 
necessary  before  I  formally  draw  my  inference,  which  is 
briefly  this  :  —  An  analogous  fact  of  discrete  mental  states 
as  they  affect  communicating  spirits,  may  be  fairl}'^  postu- 
lated as  accounting  for  many  of  the  shortcomings,  contra- 
dictions, and  stupidities  on  the  part  of  supposed  spirits, 
which  have  so  mj'stified  and  baffled  investigators. 

That  mental  phenomena  and  changes  take  place  in  the 
utter  absence  of  consciousness,  and  that  we  ma^^  even  think 
without  it,  seems  to  be  now  the  doctrine  generally  taught 


MAN   A   COMPLEX   BEING.  271 

and  accepted.  M}^  purpose  is  to  show  that  this  doctrine 
must  be  dismissed  as  not  proven  ;  that  some  degree  of  con- 
sciousness attends  all  mental  operations,  even  those  which 
go  on  in  sleep ;  —  that  there  is  no  such  phenomenon  as 
"unconscious  cerebration,"  but  that  all  intelligence  in- 
volves the  exercise  of  a  conscious  discrimination,  more  or 
less  active. 

By  the  law  or  maxim  of  parcimony^  we  must  not  multiplj^ 
substances  or  entities  unnecessarily ;  and  mj-  further  con- 
clusion under  that  rule  is,  that  the  theosophic  theory  of  a 
partition  of  the  spirit,  under  which  a  geist^  or  shadow-man, 
independent  of  the  spirit,  is  left  behind  to  manifest  itself 
to  mortals,  and  play  many  unaccountable  antics,  is  wholly 
superfluous,  since  the  doctrine  of  discrete  states,  applied 
to  spirits  as  well  as  to  mortals,  is  a  sufficient  explanation. 

Locke's  assertion  that  self  is  not  determined  by  identity 
or  diversity  of  substance,  but  onh^  by  identit}'  of  conscious- 
ness, requires  qualification. 

Hartmann,  of  Berlin,  the  pessimist,  whose  "Philosophy 
of  the  Unconscious  "  has  been  more  widely  circulated  than 
any  recent  philosophical  work  in  German}',  has  undertaken 
to  treat  the  subject  exhaustively,  and  he  seems  to  agree 
with  Locke ;  for  he  assumes  that  belief  in  a  double  con- 
sciousness in  the  human  subject  is  equivalent  to  belief  in 
a  double  personality.  As  the  issue  of  Hartmann's  inductive 
philosophj',  based  as  it  is  more  on  physiological  facts  than 
on  metaph^'sical  abstractions,  is  that  the  Supreme  Power 
in  the  universe  has  intelligence  and  will,  but  is  destitute  of 
consciousness,  and  therefore  unworthy  of  adoration, — it 
will  be  seen  that  if  it  can  be  proved  that  consciousness  is 
merely  the  equivalent  of  active  intelligence,  all  Hartmann's 
excellent  scientific  arguments,  proving  the  operation  of 
mind  and  purpose  throughout  all  animated  nature,  fall  to 
the  service  of  theism,  and  his  atheism,  or  pantheism,  which- 
ever it  may  be,  is  annulled.     I  defer  for  the  present  my 


272  DISCRETE   MENTAL    STATES. 

notice  of  what  he  has  to  say  of  Spiritualism,  the  facts  of 
which  he  admits  on  testimony. 

The  Ego  is  not  a  product  of  memorj^,  but  memorj'  is  a 
product  of  the  Ego.  Those  who  believe  in  a  double  or 
even  in  a  manifold  consciousness,  need  not  believe  in  the 
constant  incommunicabilit}^  of  the  different  states.  On  the 
contrar}^,  the  facts  all  tend  to  prove  that  there  is  a  supreme 
consciousness,  even  in  the  human  complex,  which  includes 
and  colligates  all  that  is  subordinate,  thus  reducing  the 
manifold  to  unity. 

If  unconsciousness  is  the  suspension  of  all  sensation  and 
all  mental  operations,  then  consciousness  must  be  our  men- 
tal activit}^  in  any  of  its  modes.  Consciousness  is  not  a 
distinct  faculty,  at  one  moment  active  and  the  next  inert ; 
it  is  the  mind  active  and  cognizant  of  the  forms  of  its  ac- 
tivity in  some  of  its  multiplex  states,  whether  in  sleeping 
or  waking. 

We  wind  up  a  watch,  and  the  next  moment  cannot  recol- 
lect that  w^e  did  it.  We  sa^^  we  must  have  wound  it  up 
automatically.  But  our  forgetfulness  of  the  fact  of  the 
consciousness  is  no  proof  that  it  did  not  exist,  however 
transiently.  In  cases  of  absence  of  mind  like  that  of  the 
German  Professor,  —  who  called  at  his  own  house  one  even- 
ing, and  on  being  told  that  the  Professor  was  not  at  home, 
walked  away,  forgetful  that  he  himself  was  the  Professor,  — 
self-consciousness  is  merely  diverted  from  its  operation  by 
a  consciousness  directed  to  other  thoughts  than  that  of 
self. 

When  we  are  walking,  immersed  in  thought,  two  inde- 
pendent consciousnesses  may  be  at  work,  one  regulating 
our  bodily  motions,  the  other  busy  with  our  thinking.  The 
fact  that  soldiers  on  a  march,  or  persons  walking  for  a 
wager,  have  been  known  to  sleep  while  walking,  does  not 
affect  our  inference  :  a  certain  consciousness  may  accom- 
pany their  acts  even  in  sleep. 


MAN  A   COMPLEX   BEING.  273 

A  man  of  ordinary  self-control  rarely  oversleeps  himself 
when  it  is  important  that  he  should  wake  and  rise  three  or 
four  hours  earlier  than  usual.  The  anxious  mother  wakes 
at  the  slightest  motion  from  her  suffering  child.  What  is 
it  but  consciousness  that  produces  the  waking  in  such 
cases?  A  person  stunned  will  pick  up  his  hat,  walk  home, 
undress,  and  go  to  bed,  though  his  consciousness  may  seem 
to  be  annihilated,  and  he  may  have  no  recollection  of  what 
he  has  been  doing  when  he  comes  to  his  senses.  That  there 
was  an  obscure  consciousness  regulating  his  movements  is 
the  explanation. 

The  case  is  related  of  a  woodman  who,  while  in  the  midst 
of  uttering  a  sentence,  was  felled  insensible  to  the  earth  by 
a  blow  on  the  head  from  a  falUng  tree.  He  remained  for 
months  in  a  semi-comatose  state,  and  was  at  last  trepanned 
for  the  accident.  The  minute  the  crushed  fragment  of  bone 
was  lifted,  he  went  on  finishing  the  sentence  he  had  begun 
several  months  before.  Compare  this  with  the  analogous 
facts  I  have  related  in  the  case  of  Mrs.  Mowatt. 

Epileptics  have  been  known  to  finish,  in  a  new  paroxysm 
of  their  complaint,  a  sentence  begun  in  an  attack  which  had 
occurred  days  or  weeks  before.  Combe  relates  that  an 
Edinburgh  porter,  who  while  drunk  left  a  package  at  the 
wrong  house,  could  not  when  sober  summon  any  recollec- 
tion of  where  he  had  left  it ;  but  on  being  drunk  again  at 
once  recalled  the  place  and  got  back  the  package. 

Facts  like  these  show  that  trains  of  thought,  carried  on 
in  one  state  of  consciousness,  may  be  interrupted  by  the 
access  of  another  state,  but  resumed  when  the  former  sus- 
pended state  returns.  The  phenomenon  is  one  which  every 
experienced  student  of  somnambulism  will  admit.  Indeed, 
as  I  have  already  stated,  medical  science  admits  it  as  com- 
mon in  cataleps}^ 

Similar  facts  could  be  multiplied  indefinitely.  Mauds- 
le}^,  whose  authority  will  be  readily  accepted  by  materialists, 
18 


274  DISCRETE  MENTAL   STATES. 

relates  the  case  of  a  groom  who  was  kicked  on  the  head  by 
his  mare  Dolty,  and  made  insensible.  When,  after  three 
hours,  a  portion  of  bone  pressing  on  the  brain  was  removed, 
the  patient  cried  out  with  great  energy,  "  Whoa,  Doll}^ !  " 
The  words  he  had  just  been  going  to  utter  had  been  locked 
up,  as  thej^  might  have  been  in  the  phonograph,  to  be  let 
go  the  moment  the  obstructing  pressure  was  removed.  The 
incident  is  quoted  as  a  proof  that  by  pressing  on  the  brain 
we  can  stop  a  thought  or  a  volition.  This  may  be  true  ; 
but  it  does  not  prove  that  the  mind  remains  vacant  of 
thought,  or  that  every  degree  of  consciousness  is  suspended. 
One  mental  state  has  been  superseded  by  another  less 
demonstrative  —  that  is  all. 

"  Persons  have  lived  for  years,"  says  Dr.  Wm.  Gregory, 
of  Edinburgh,  "  in  an  alternation  of  tw^o  consciousnesses,  in 
the  one  of  which  they  forget  all  the}^  have  ever  learned  in 
the  other."  Even  Huxley  admits  the  imphed  fact.  In  his 
Address,  Aug.  25,  1874,  before  the  British  Association  at 
Belfast,  he  describes  a  case  in  which  two  separate  lives,  a 
normal  and  abnormal  one,  seemed  to  be  lived  at  intervals 
by  the  same  individual. 

"The  more  we  examine  the  mechanism  of  thought," 
says  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes,  "  the  more  we  shall  see  that  the 
automatic,  unconscious  action  of  the  mind  enters  largely 
into  all  its  processes.  .  .  .  We  all  have  a  double.,  who  is 
wiser  and  better  than  we  are,  and  who  puts  thoughts  into 
our  heads  and  words  into  our  mouths."  With  a  little  qual- 
ification this  is  good  spiritual  doctrine,  since  there  are  un- 
doubtedly spiritual  faculties  within  us  transcending  those 
of  our  normal  state  (as  clairvoyance  proves)  ;  but  can  our 
"  wiser  and  better  double"  be  destitute  of  consciousness? 
On  the  contrary,  he  is  as  superior  in  that  respect  as  in 
others.  Do  we  not  regard  it  as  a  detraction  from  the  char- 
acter of  the  Supreme  Being  to  deny  Him  the  attribute  of 
consciousness  ?     Hartmann  gives  his  God  intelligence  and 


MAN   A    COMPLEX   BEING.  275 

will,  but  represents  Him  as  unconscious;  and  it  is  this 
defect,  the  philosopher  tells  us,  that  makes  deity  unworthy 
of  human  adoration. 

The  late  Professor  Clifford,  of  England,  who,  had  he  rot 
died  3'oung,  would  probably  have  outgrown  his  wild  theo- 
ries, h3'pothecated  what  he  called  "  mind-stuff"  to  account 
for  life  and  mind  on  materialistic  and  Sadducean  principles. 
He  entirely  overlooked  the  consideration  that  when  he  anni- 
hilated what  extreme  materialists  understand  by  matter^  by 
identifying  it,  in  ever  so  limited  a  degree,  with  mind,  he 
surrendered  his  whole  atheistic  argument,  and  became  a 
simple  idealist. 

Much  more  rational  and  consistent  is  the  theory  of  Dr. 
Heinrich  Tiedemann  (1877),  who  argues  that  the  original 
matter,  imperceptible  to  the  senses,  which  constituted  the 
entire  universe,  must  have  been  heterogeneous,  and  not  ho- 
mogeneous, as  Herbert  Spencer  would  have  it ;  and  this  het- 
erogeneous matter  must  have  been  composed  of  physical, 
psychological,  and  psychical  elements  ;  so  that  all  which  we 
see  before  us  —  minerals,  plants,  animals,  and  man  —  had 
their  origin  in  the  mutual  acting  on  one  another  of  the 
qualities  of  this  heterogeneous  matter.  Tiedemann  says 
that  Materialism,  in  declaring  that  matter  must  be  percep- 
tible to  the  senses,  or  that  things  which  cannot  be  recog- 
nized and  investigated  with  the  limited  sensual  organs  and 
their  adjuncts,  have  no  existence,  or  are  mere  transient 
phenomena,  has  started  from  false  premises,  and  hence  all 
its  inferences  therefrom  must  also  be  erroneous.     He  says  : 

' '  All  that  we  perceive  has  originated  from  something 
that  existed  before ;  it  must  have  been  so  at  all  times  and 
everywhere.  Atoms,  molecules,  and  monads,  therefore, 
are  conceptions  which  must  all  have  originated  from  some- 
thing that  existed  previousl}^,  as  the  eternal  past  is  no 
more  limited  than  the  eternal  future.  But  with  the  adop- 
tion of  original  atoms,  molecules,  or  monads,  we  should 
limit  our  deduction  into  the  indefinite  past,  and  the  moment 


276  *         DISCRETE  MENTAL   STATES. 

we  arrive  at  them,  we  should  be  compelled  to  assume  a 
stationary  condition  of  them  in  the  indefinite  past,  and 
thus  everj^thing  would  have  a  beginning,  and  must  have 
been  created  :  — by  wJiom,  where,  how^  and  of  what?" 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  Tiedemann  leaves  room  for  the 
theistic  theory,  —  indeed,  finds  it  inevitable.  From  a  sin- 
cere Materialist  he  became,  through  free  investigation,  a 
sincere  Spiritualist.  He  argues  that  the  atoms,  &c.,  must 
have  originated  from  something  before  them,  since  a  state 
of  rest  extending  back  into  the  eternal  past  is  an  impossi- 
bility ;  such  a  state  of  rest  would  be  motionless  death, 
which  cannot  be  proved  to  have  existed  anywhere,  or  at 
any  time  in  the  universe.  If  motion  had  ever  commenced, 
that  which  moves  must  previously  have  been  without  mo- 
tion, which  is  simply  impossible. 

The  monistic  doctrine,  which  teaches  that  only  one 
matter,  ph3'sical  matter,  constituted  the  universe,  is  ably 
combated  by  Tiedemann.  Nobody,  he  ssljs,  will  deny  that 
physiological  essence  and  matter  predominate  in  plants, 
while  in  animals  and  man  there  is  a  psychic  essence,  which 
must  necessarily  be  combined  with  psj-chic  matter,  and 
manifest  itself  through  corresponding  phenomena.  A 
psj^chic  force,  he  argues,  without  a  corresponding  psj^chic 
matter,  is  the  phantom  of  an  unsound  speculation.  Hence, 
in  his  trinity  of  grades  of  matter,  soul-stuff  must  have  a 
place.*  Of  the  materialization  phenomena,  Tiedemann 
says  : 

"  It  seems  as  if  theliigher  developed  spirits  possess  the 
facult}"  to  mould  the  omnipresent  physiological  and  phj^si- 
cal  elements  into  such  objects  as  were  known  to  them  dur- 
ing their  earthly  existence,  which  is  generally  called  mate- 
rialization, though  this  must  be  regarded  as  a  misnomer, 
because  it  admits  of  the  supposition  that  immaterial  ele- 

*  Dr.  E.  D.  Babbitt,  in  his  elaborate  work  entitled  "Principles  of  Light  and 
Color"  (1878),  assumes  the  existence  of  the  "  radiant  or  ultra-gaseous  matter," 
afterwards  proved  by  the  experiments  of  William  Crookes. 


MAN   A    COMPLEX  BEING.  277 

ments  'are  wrought  into  material  forms,  a  thing  which 
occurs  nowhere  in  nature,  not  even  in  the  spirit- world, 
which  cannot  extend  be3'ond  the  hmits  of  infinite  nature. 

"  In  the  same  manner  some  spirit-bodies,  inhabitants  of 
the  universe,  have  the  power  to  use  the  surrounding  elements, 
which  the}^  seem  partly  to  borrow  from  a  medium,  for  the 
purpose  of  appearing  in  such  a  condition  that  they  become 
visible,  and  even  tangible,  to  certain  favorably  organized 
persons  ;  —  adopting  once  more  the  corporeal  form  in  which 
they  were  known  to  men,  and  in  which  alone  they  can  be 
recognized  as  the  beings  they  pretend  to  be."  * 

Since  all  mental  activity,  all  thought,  implies  conscious- 
ness in  some  form  or  degree,  the  fact  that  we  ma}^  not  be 
conscious  at  one  time  of  having  been  conscious  at  a  pre- 
vious time,  is  no  proof  whatever  that  consciousness  was 
not  then  present.  To  know  and  to  be  conscious  of  know- 
ing are  one  and  the  same  thing.  The  whole  of  conscious- 
ness is  not  included  in  a  special  act  of  attention  or  discrim- 
ination. I  may  be  conscious  of  knowing  that  the  whole  is 
greater  than  a  part,  even  when  I  am  not  attending  to  the 
fact.  Indeed,  this  sub-consciousness  must  influence  many 
of  my  acts.  The  thought  that  flashes  to  a  conclusion,  or 
solves  a  problem  without  apparent  effort,  may  have  been 
nothing  less  than  the  product  of  the  conscious  mind  in  one 
of  its  discrete  states. 

Mind  may  work  in  one  state  with  a  velocity  wholly  in- 
conceivable to  mind  in  a  lower  state.  The  mental  phe- 
nomena of  drowning  confirm  this.  See  the  letter  addressed 
by  Admiral  Beaufort  to  Dr.  W.  H.  WoUaston,  originally 
published  in  the  Life  of  Sir  John  Barrow,  who  remarks  of 
the  letter  ; 

"  It  proves  that  the  spirit  of  man  may  retain  its  full 
activity  when  freed  from  the  trammels  of  the  flesh  ;  at  least 
when  all  the  functions  of  the  body  are  deprived  of  animal 


*  See  "  Four  Essays,  concerning  Spiritism."    By  Heinrlch  Tledemann,  M.  D., 
Philadelphia.    Chicago  :    Religio-Philosophical  Publishing  House. 


278  DISCRETE   MENTAL    STATES. 

power,  and  the  spirit  has  become  something  like  the  tj'p'e 
and  shadow  of  that  wliich  we  are  taught  to  beheve  con- 
cerning the  immortalit}'  of  the  soul." 

Admiral  Beaufort,  when  a  j^outh,  fell  overboard  from  a 
boat,  and  not  being  able  to  swim,  sank  before  relief  could 
be  had,  but  was  in  the  water  less  than  two  minutes.  He 
says : 

"Though  the  senses  were  thus  deadened,  not  so  the 
mind ;  its  activity  seemed  to  be  invigorated  in  a  ratio 
which  defies  all  description,  for  thought  rose  after  thought 
with  a  rapidity  of  succession  that  is  not  onl}'  indescribable 
but  probabl}"  inconceivable  by  any  one  who  has  not  himself 
been  in  a  similar  situation.  .  .  .  Travelling  backwards, 
every  past  incident  of  my  life  seemed  to  glance  across  my 
recollection  in  retrograde  succession ;  not,  however,  in 
mere  outline,  as  here  stated,  but  the  picture  filled  up  with 
every  minute  and  collateral  feature.  Indeed,  many  trifling 
events  which  had  been  long  forgotten  then  crowded  into 
m}'  imagination,  and  with  the  character  of  recent  famil- 
iarity. .  .  .  The  innumerable  ideas  which  flashed  into 
my  mind  were  all  retrospective.  .  .  .  Not  a  single  thought 
wandered  into  the  future." 

The  mind  is  not  only  a  unity,  but  a  multiplex  unity,  and 
one  that  in  its  historical  evolution  is  ever  growing  more 
multiplex.  It  has  capabilities  be3'ond  all  that  can  be 
imasrined  as  comina:  from  the  mere  exercise  of  the  known 
senses.  Its  supersensual  powers  and  achievements  have 
been  amply  demonstrated  in  the  facts  of  Spiritualism. 

Mr.  G.  H.  Lewes  tells  us  that  thinking,  being  a  seria- 
tion,  and  involving  time,  the  notion  of  ultimate  unity  and 
simplicit}^  cannot  be  apphed  to  a  Thinking  Principle.  But 
this  assertion  has  no  scientific  value  in  view  of  certain 
well-known  mental  phenomena.  In  drowning  and  the  near 
prospect  of  death,  the  mind,  we  have  seen,  may  act  with  mi- 
raculous celerity.  Time  is  annihilated ,  and  seriation  is  super- 
seded. Indeed,  clairvoj-ance  proves  this  ;  and  it  is  spiritual- 
ly and  objectively  proved  in  the  seeming  supersedure  of  all 


MAN   A    COMPLEX   BEING.  279 

time  in  the  instantaneous  production  of  long  messages, 
written  independently  of  any  human  agency.  The  events 
of  a  life-time  ma}"  be  presented  to  consciousness  in  a  flash. 
I  can  only  compare  the  effect  to  that  photographic  process 
by  which  all  the  minute  details  of  a  large  picture  may  be 
compressed  into  a  mere  dot,  and  made  visible  only  through 
the  microscope. 

The  frequent  absurdity  of  our  thoughts  in  dreams  is  no 
proof  of  unconsciousness.  It  merely  shows  that  while  the 
reasoning  faculty  is  inert,  consciousness  ma^^  accept  the 
fanciful  or  superinduced  for  the  real.  Nor  is  the  profound 
sleep  from  which  ,  we  bring  no  recollection  when  we  wake 
any  proof  of  mental  insensibility.  When  our  sleep  is 
deepest,  the  mind  may  be  most  active.  Abercrombie 
relates  that  in  the  case  of  persons  talking  in  their  sleep, 
and  thus  indicating  the  subject  of  their  dreams,  it  con- 
stantly happens  that,  when  interrogated  as  to  their  dreams 
the  next  morning,  the}^  deny  having  had  any  ;  and  even  if 
the  subject  of  their  sleep-talking  be  suggested  to  them,  it 
awakens  no  train  of  memor3\  If  consciousness,  then,  be 
mental  activitj^,  how  are  we  to  prove  utter  unconsciousness? 
External  signs  are  not  to  be  trusted  here  for  a  solution  of 
the  mystery.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Tennant  lay  in  a  state  of 
apparent  insensibility  for  some  thirty  hours,  but  was  con- 
scious of  what  was  going  on  around  him,  and  also  of 
certain  spiritual  experiences  which  he  underwent. 

The  facts  of  idiocy  are  often  quoted  b}"  Materialists  as 
helping  their  theory.  But  the  most  advanced  science  on 
the  subject  gives  them  no  comfort.  Dr.  Bateman,  con- 
sulting physician  to  the  Eastern  Counties  Asylum  for  Idiots, 
England,  gives  it  as  his  experience  that  the  results  of  idiot 
training  furnish  a  forcible  demonstration  of  the  dualistic 
theory  of  matter  and  mind.  Thought  is  not  a  mere  func- 
tion of  brain  protoplasm.  The  varied  phenomena  of  na- 
ture are  something  more  than  mere  molecular  changes  of 


280  DISCRETE   MENTAL   STATES. 

matter.  This  is  proved  in  the  facts  adduced  by  Hartmann. 
Vohtion  and  consciousness  spring  from  something  be3'ond 
nerve-centres  and  purel^^  ph3'sical  motions.  The  intellectual 
and  moral  faculties  are  not  absent  from  the  idiot.  There  is 
an  independent  spiritual  consciousness  which  reveals  itself 
by  flashes  at  times.  A  celebrated  German  authority',  Herr 
Seager,  of  Berlin,  has  stated  that  in  his  establishment  he 
had  indubitable  cases  of  idiocy,  in  which  the  head  w^as 
small  and  malformed,  yet  in  which  the  results  of  education 
were  so  triumphant  that  his  patients  were  ultimately  able 
to  mix  with  the  world  without  being  recognized  as  idiots. 
Further,  he  tells  us  that  in  one  instance  a  young  man  un- 
derwent confirmation,  without  the  priest's  suspecting  that 
he  had  been  rescued  from  idioc3^     Dr.  Bateman  saj^s  : 

' '  Undoubtedl}^  the  idiot  of  the  lowest  class  has  the  germ 
of  intellectual  activity  and  of  moral  responsibility  ;  and 
this  germ,  cherished  and  nourished  by  the  genial  warmth 
of  human  kindness,  fenced  round  and  protected  from  the 
blasts  and  buffetings  of  the  world  by  the  cords  of  true 
philanthropy,  watered  by  the  dew  of  human  sj'mpathy, 
although  possibly  only  permitted  to  bud  here,  is  destined 
hereafter  to  expand  into  a  perfect  flower,  and  flourish  pe- 
rennially in  another  and  a  better  state  of  being." 

Agassiz,  reaflSrming  the  views  of  Dr.  Brown-Sequard, 
sa3'S :  "There  are  two  sets,  or  a  double  set  of  mental 
powers  in  the  human  organism,  essentially  different  from 
each  other.  The  one  may  be  designated  as  our  ordinar3^ 
conscious  intelligence,  the  other  as  a  superior  power,  which 
controls  our  better  nature  ;  .  .  .  acting  through  us  without 
conscious  action  of  our  own."  Here  the  "  superior  power" 
to  which  Agassiz  refers  may  be  simply  a  discrete  mental 
state,  or  a  high  spiritual  consciousness.  In  the  Supple- 
ment to  Chauncey  Hare  Townshend's  "Facts  in  Mesmer- 
ism" (London,  1844)  will  be  found  a  letter  from  Agassiz, 
giving  an  account  of  the  majiner  in  which  he  himself  was 
afl"ected  by  mesmerism  at  Neufchatel,  Februar3^  22,  1839. 


MAN   A    COMPLEX   BEING.  281 

J.  Balfour  Brown,  in  his  "  MedicalJurisprudence,"  says  : 
*'  In  cases  of  pure  somnambulism  the  waking  consciousness 
of  the  individual  knows  nothing  of  the  sleeping  conscious- 
ness. It  is  as  if  there  were  two  memories."  This  is  true  ; 
only  it  should  have  been  added  that  the  "  sleeping"  may 
include  the  waking  consciousness. 

Abercrombie  relates  the  case  of  a  boy  who  was  trepanned 
for  a  fracture  of  the  skull  at  the  age  of  four.  He  was 
at  the  time  in  complete  stupor,  and  after  his  recover}'  re- 
tained no  recollection  of  the  operation.  At  the  age  of 
fifteen,  during  the  delirium  of  a  fever,  he  gave  a  correct 
description  of  the  operation  and  of  the  persons  that  were 
present  at  it,  with  their  dress  and  other  minute  particulars. 
He  had  never  been  heard  to  allude  to  it  before,  and  no 
means  were  known  by  which  he  could  have  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  circumstances  he  mentioned. 

Only  the  theory  of  a  discrete  mental  state  is  applicable 
here.  Is  it  likely  that  a  boy  four  years  old,  while  in  a  state 
of  stupor,  took  cognizance  of  things  and  persons  about 
him,  and  kept  it  all  in  his  memorj',  unless  there  had  been 
a  psjxhical  consciousness  at  work?  May  not  Swedenborg 
throw  some  light  on  the  question  ?     He  says  : 

"  Whatever  things  a  man  hears,  sees,  and  is  affected 
with,  these  are  insinuated,  as  to  ideas  and  ends,  into  his 
interior  memor}',  without  his  being  aware  of  it,  and  in  that 
they  remain,  so  that  not  an\^thing  perishes ;  although  the 
same  things  are  obliterated  in  the  exterior  memory.  The 
interior  memory,  therefore,  is  such,  that  there  are  inscribed 
in  it  all  the  particular  things,  yea,  the  most  particular, 
which  man  has  at  any  time  thought,  spoken,  and  done,  yea, 
which  have  appeared  to  him  as  a  shadow,  with  the  most 
minute  circumstances,  from  his  earliest  infancy  to  extreme 
old  age." 

Inconceivable  as  this  may  appear,  it  is  in  harmony  with 
innumerable  facts.  "Our  intuitions,"  says  J.  Le  Conte, 
"  are  in  the  nature  of  spiritual  senses,  hy  which  we  attain 


282  DISCRETE  MENTAL   STATES. 

knowledge  directly  by  processes  which  transcend  the  power 
of  our  analysis."     Swedenborg  says: 

"  Everj^  man  has  an  inferior  or  exterior  mind,  and  a  mind 
superior  or  interior.  .  .  .  These  two  minds  are  so  distinct, 
that  man  so  long  as  he  lives  in  the  world  does  not  know 
what  is  performing  with  himself  in  his  superior  mind,  and 
when  he  becomes  a  spirit,  which  is  immediately  after  death, 
he  does  not  know  what  is  joerforming  in  his  inferior  mind." 

Maudsley  tells  us  that  "  consciousness  is  not  coextensive 
with  mind;"  that  "a  mental  power  is  being  organized 
before  the  supervention  of  consciousness  ;  "  and  that  "  the 
preconscious  action  of  the  mind,  and  the  unconscious,  are 
facts  of  which  self-consciousness  can  give  no  account." 
But  how  do  we  know  that  consciousness  is  not  "  coextensive 
with  mind  "  ?  How  can  we  know  it,  since  facts  prove  that 
we  may  be  wholly  ignorant,  in  our  normal  state,  of  our 
higher  or  lower  developments  of  consciousness  ? 

To  those  mental  operations  of  which  our  ordinary  con- 
sciousness takes  no  note.  Carpenter  has  given  the  not  felic- 
itous name  of  "  unconscious  cerebration."  Other  phrases 
used  to  designate  the  phenomenon  are,  "  obscure  percep- 
tions," "  reflex  action  of  the  brain,"  and  "automatic  brain- 
work."  But  we  cannot  think  without  knowing  it,  since 
thought  without  a  knowledge  of  it  is  merely"  potential 
thought.  ' '  Take  awa}^  consciousness  from  an  intellectual 
act,"  says  Paul  Janet,  "  and  what  will  remain  but  an  empty 
dead  concept?" 

But  in  cases  of  insanity,  or  where  a  sensitive  is  biologized, 
and  seems  to  be  subject  to  the  will  of  the  mesmerizer,  is 
there  not  an  absence  of  consciousness  ?  Nay,  it  is  to  iden- 
tify consciousness  with  reason  to  instance  such  cases  as  any 
proof  of  the  utter  absence  of  the  former. 

The  legitimate  inference,  then,  from  our  facts  is,  that 
there  is  a  ps3xhical  or  inner  consciousness  distinct  from 
the  cerebral  and  outer,  and  that  between  the  two  there  are 


MAN   A   COMPLEX   BEING.  283 

discrete  degrees.  Sometimes  there  may  be  an  intromission 
of  tiiought  from  one  to  the  other ;  and  in  highly  sensitive 
subjects  this  is  not  uncommon.  Thoughts  that  come  to  us, 
we  know  not  how  or  whence,  ma}'  come  from  higher  grades 
of  consciousness ;  sometimes,  perhaps,  from  lower ;  for 
the  essence  of  feeling,  as  well  as  of  thought,  is  conscious- 
ness. 

The  "intuitive  cognition"  of  Jacobi,  the  "intellectual 
intuition"  of  Schelling,  the  "secret  power"  of  Agassiz 
and  Dr.  Brown-Sequard,  the  "ecstasy"  of  Plotinus,  and 
the  "  unconscious  cerebration"  of  Dr.  Carpenter,  do  not 
suggest  the  whole  truth ;  for  the  thought  generated  in  the 
state  thus  variously  designated  is  not  the  product  of  mental 
passivit}^,  but  the  equivalent  of  an  inner  and  at  times  a 
superior  consciousness. 

Schelling's  assertion  that  there  is  a  capacit}'  of  knowl- 
edge above  or  behind  consciousness,  and  higher  than  the 
understanding,  is  merely  another  form  of  saying  that  there 
is  a  distinct  spiritual  consciousness  ;  and  this  I  hold  to  be 
the  truth.  Fully  consistent  with  it  is  the  theory  that  there 
are  spirits  who,  as  Shakspeare  sa3's,  "tend  on  mortal 
thoughts,"  and  perhaps  impart  much  that  we  regard  as 
purely  our  own.  In  our  highest,  deepest,  most  intimate 
consciousness  we  must  be  aware  of  our  spiritual  existence 
and  environments.  Since  all  ultimate  and  absolutely  sim- 
ple facts  are  facts  of  consciousness,  the  logical  basis  of  all 
our  knowledge  must  be  consciousness,  and  without  it  there 
can  be  no  thinking. 

The  German  word  for  consciousness  (Bewiisstsein,  con- 
scious-being) would  seem  to  involve  in  its  meaning  the 
identity  of  knowing  and  being,  and  to  comprehend  the 
great  fact  of  discrete  mental  states. 

Lessing,  an  earnest,  independent  thinker,  has  this  re- 
mark:  "It  belongs  to  human  prejudices  that  we  regard 
thought   as  the  first  and  chief  thing,   and  wish  to  derive 


284  DISCRETE  MENTAL   STATES. 

everj'thing  from  it ;  whereas,  in  fact,  everything,  ideas  in- 
cluded, depends  upon  higher  principles."  All  which  may  be 
reduced  to  this  :  There  may  be  a  divine  ground  of  thought 
and  consciousness,  to  which  thought,  as  manifested  by 
man,  is  an  inferior  force.  This  can  be  readily  admitted, 
since  in  repl}^  to  the  assertion,  "There  is  nothing  greater 
than  thought,"  it  ma}^  be  replied,  "  Except  the  mind  it- 
self." Our  interior  psychical  faculties,  involving  as  they  do 
clairvoj'ance,  must  transcend  those  of  the  external,  specu- 
lative intellect. 

The  fact  of  those  inner  states,  in  the  which  our  inner 
man  is  and  thinks,  before  our  normal  consciousness  per- 
ceives itself  as  existing  and  thinking  in  them,  is  clearly 
conceded  by  I.  G-.  Fichte  and  by  Schelling.  But  they  do 
not  seem  to  take  it  into  the  account  that  those  inner  states 
instead  of  being  passive,  ma}'  be  also  states  of  conscious- 
ness. Thus  in  the  case  of  "intuitions,"  or  results  of 
"unconscious  cerebration,"  our  consciousness,  according 
to  these  philosojohers,  perceives  a  defect  within  itself,  a 
negation  of  its  individual  self-activit}".  But  this  negation 
is  founded  on  illusion,  and  loses  its  force  when  we  admit 
the  great  fact  of  discrete  degrees. 

Dr.  Carpenter  saj^s  :  "  Mental  changes,  of  whose  results 
we  subsequently  become  conscious,  may  go  on  below  the 
plane  of  consciousness,  either  during  profound  sleep,  or 
whilst  attention  is  whoU}'  engrossed  by  some  entirely  difler- 
ent  train  of  thought."  This  is  a  fair  statement  of  the 
view  now  generally  taken.  But  consciousness  is  not  a 
"  plane,"  a  simple  surface.  It  has  its  elevations  and  its 
depressions,  its  sunlight  and  its  shade,  in  short,  its  discrete 
states.  From  one  point  its  horizon  is  expanded ;  from 
another  it  is  contracted.  If  there  are  mental  changes  in 
sleep,  then  there  is  consciousness  in  that  sleep,  though  we 
may  not  know  it  when  we  wake.  If,  while  our  attention 
is  engrossed  by  a  certain  train  of  thought,  other  thoughts 


MAN^A   COMPLEX   BEING.  285 

are  going  on,  they  too  may  pertain  to  consciousness,  whose 
yerj'  essence  is  thought.  Can  two  consciousnesses  coexist? 
Why  not?  Tliat  we  are  not  conscious  of  a  consciousness 
is  no  proof  that  it  may  not  have  existed  and  been  active. 

All  degrees  of  consciousness  may,  like  the  three  funda- 
mental colors,  red,  3'ellow,  and  blue,  be  dissolved  into  a 
unity  of  white  light ;  and  so  there  may  be  —  and  m}'  own 
experience  in  somnambulism  affirms  it — a  supreme  con- 
sciousness, in  which  all  others  maj  be  blended. 

Ma}^  not  these  analogies  of  discrete  states  of  the  mind 
apply  to  spirits  in  their  attempt  to  manifest  themselves  to 
mortals  ?  In  this  attempt  the  spirit  ma}'  not  be  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  his  high  spiritual  consciousness,  any  more  than  in 
his  materialized  manifestation  he  is  exhibiting  his  real 
spirit-form.  In  the  last-named  act  his  object  is  to  extem- 
porize a  form  in  order  to  make  himself  recognized  ;  and 
this  form  he  tries  to  make  like  that  which  he  had  at  some 
period  of  his  earth-life.  The  experiment,  accordingly^,  may 
involve  a  descent  from  a  higher  to  a  lower  condition,  one 
limited  and  obscured,  and  it  is  consequently  a  changed  and 
partial  consciousness  which  he  brings.  Thus  his  accounts 
of  hfe  in  the  spirit-world  ma}'  be  confused  or  contradictory  ; 
and  his  predictions  and  replies,  though  sometimes  accurate, 
ma}'  be  often  fallacious.  He  may  be  powerless  to  say  or  do 
what  in  an  ampler  state  of  consciousness  he  might  desire. 
We  must  not  take  it  for  granted  that  a  sph'it  submitting  to 
material  conditions  can  manifest  the  same  consciousness 
which  he  may  have  in  a  superior  state. 

The  reticence,  the  mistakes,  the  lapses  of  memory,  and 
the  frivolous  excuses  or  postponements,  to  which  these 
manifesting  spirits  at  times  resort,  and  which  occur  even  in 
the  case  of  well-identified  "materializations,"  maybe  ex- 
plained by  this  theory  of  a  change  or  limitation  of  con- 
sciousness. It  is  in  harmony  wdth  the  mental  phenomena 
shown   in   the   facts   of   this   chapter.      The   materialized 


286  DISCRETE   MENTAL    STATES. 

spirit-foriQ  does  not  adequate!}'  embody  the  consciousness 
of  the  spirit ;  since  that  form  is  as  foreign  to  it  as  the  mol- 
ecules making  up  the  bod}'  of  the  child  are  foreign  to  the 
same  being  when  an  adult. 

That  which  ph^'sicists  and  philosophers  have  regarded  as 
"unconscious  operations  of  the  mind,"  must,  then,  be  re- 
ferred simply  to  a  discrete  mental  state.  The  fundamental 
truth  lies  in  the  words  of  Job  :  "  There  is  a  spirit  in  man, 
and  the  inspiration  of  the  Almight}-  giveth  them  under- 
standing." 

Mark  the  force  here  of  the  relati^^e  them.  It  is  to  man 
and  the  spirit  of  man  that  the  Almighty  giveth  under- 
standing. Wh}^  this  distinction?  Is  it  not  a  distinction 
between  the  cerebral  or  normal  consciousness,  and  that 
which  is  the  propert}^  of  the  inner  spiritual  nature?  If 
there  are  two  "  understandings,"  may  there  not  be  a  dual 
consciousness  ? 

Edward  von  Hartmann,  author  of  "The  Philosophy  of 
the  Unconscious,"  was  ill  at  the  time  of  the  Berlin  experi- 
ments with  Slade,  and  could  not  witness  them ;  but  he 
accepts  Zollner's  account  of  their  occurrence,  and  attempts 
to  reconcile  the  phenomena  with  his  Sadducean  philosophy, 
which  ma}'  be  summed  up  thus :  There  is  no  future  for 
man,  and  the  cosmos  had  better  not  have  been. 

Nominally  Hartmann  is  atheistic  ;  but  as  he  argues  in 
favor  of  an  Intelligence  and  a  Will,  proved  in  the  processes 
of  nature,  his  system  is  not  wholly  antagonistic  to  Theism. 
He  concludes  that  there  is  omnipresent  in  nature  one  Will 
and  Intellect,  acting  unconsciously,  in  inseparable  union 
with  each  other,  through  whose  agency  all  the  phenomena 
of  the  universe,  including  those  of  Spiritualism,  may  be 
accounted  for. 

He  tells  us  that  consciousness  is  not  a'  fixed  state,  but  a 
process,  a  perpetual  becoming ;  that  its  antecedents  are 
impenetrable  to  itself,   and   we  can  only  hope  to   resolve 


MAN    A    COMPLEX   BEING.  287 

the  problem  indirectly.  This  he  attempts  to  do.  He  first 
distinguishes  consciousness  from  self-consciousness,  re- 
garding the  former  as  the  prior  of  the  two.  Will  and 
Intellect  he  regards  as  belonging  to  the  domain  of  the  Un- 
conscious ;  a  power  operating  on  all  unconscious  functions, 
human,  animal,  and  vegetable.  It  is  the  one  absolute 
Subject.  In  other  words,  it  is  a  union  of  Intellect  and 
Will,  which  we  may  call  God  if  we  choose,  but  which  to 
Hartmann  has  none  of  the  qualities  that  command  ado- 
ration.* 

This  unconscious  Power,  immanent  in  the  universe,  has 
its  phenomenal  manifestation  in  a  multitude  of  individuals  ; 
and  consciousness  first  emerges  from  the  cerebral  organism 
of  man ;  all  belief  in  whose  immortality,  however,  is  a 
delusion.  For  this  attempt  to  evolve  consciousness  from 
organism,  Hartmann  does  not  claim  originalitj^  Long  ago 
Schelling  remarked.  It  is  not  thought  itself,  but  the  con- 
sciousness of  it,  which  depends  on  organic  modifications. 
Thus  by  cerebral  consciousness  Hartmann  means  our  nor- 
mal state ;  since  any  other  consciousness  of  which  we  may 
have  experience  is,  in  his  system,  merely  a  development 
of  the  imparted  activitj'  of  the  Unconscious,  and  does  not 
fairl}"  belong  to  the  human  individual. 

The  essence  of  consciousness,  he  tells  us  —  and  here  let 
the  reader  prepare  to  enter  on  very  obscure  ground  —  con- 
sists in  the  rupture  of  the  companionship  between  Will  and 
Intellect.  This  divorce  is  efijected  hj  forcing  upon  the  mind 
a  novel  perception,  which  is  not  a  purpose  of  its  own  voli- 
tion, and  therefore  exists  in  opposition  to  the  will.  He 
celebrates  the  birth  of  consciousness  in  these  words : 

"The  grand  revolution  is  now  consummated  ;  the  first 
step  is  taken  towards  the  world's  enfranchisement.  The 
Idea  is  emancipated  from  the  Will ;  hereafter  it  will  be 

*  See  Professor  Francis  Bovven's  excellent  "  Modern  Philosophy  "  for  a  full 
and  fair  account  of  Hartmann  and  his  system. 


UbS  DISCRETE   MENTAL   STATES. 

able,  as  an  inclependent  Power,  to  oppose  itself  to  the  Will, 
and  to  subject  it  to  its  own  laws,  after  having  been  hitherto 
its  slave.  The  astonishment  of  the  Will  at  this  revolt 
against  its  authority,  w-hich  up  to  this  time  has  been  recog- 
nized ;  the  sensation  caused  b}^  the  apparition  of  the  Idea 
in  the  bosom  of  the  Unconscious  —  that  is  consciousness." 

Few  readers,  it  is  probable,  will  experience  much  of  a 
clearing-up  in  their  notions  on  the  subject  from  this  epito- 
mized statement ;  which,  however,  is  quite  as  intelligible 
as  the  ampler  details.  Hartmann  adopts  the  inductive 
method  of  the  physical  sciences,  and  professes  to  found  his 
theories  on  observed  facts  ;  and  where  he  has  mastered  the 
facts  of  a  subject  his  speculations  are  often  sagacious. 
But  in  his  remarks  on  somnambulism,  the  bearings  of 
which  on  consciousness  are  all-important,  he  shows  that  his 
experience  has  been  limited  and  his  knowledge  partial. 
Hence  he  overlooks  the  real  significance  of  the  phenomena. 
The  tendency  of  the  facts  I  have  presented  is  to  show  that 
consciousness  is  the  necessarj^  accompaniment  of  all  intel- 
ligence, divine  as  well  as  human. 

How  of  that  intelligence  which,  under  the  Spiritual 
theor}^,  is  imparted  (we  being  unconscious  of  the  influence) 
by  spirits?  "  Every  grand  thought,"  sa3's  Goethe,  "  which 
bears  fruit  and  has  a  sequel,  is  no  man's  propert}^  but  has 
a  spiritual  origin.  The  higher  a  man  stands  the  more  is  he 
standing  under  the  influence  of  the  demons  (spirits). 
Everj'thing  is  influence,  so  far  as  we  are  not  it  ourselves. 
In  poetry  there  is  decidedly  something  demoniac,  and  par- 
ticularly in  the  unconscious,  in  which  intellect  and  reason 
all  fall  short,  and  which  therefore  acts  beyond  all  con- 
ception." 

Here  Goethe,  corroborating  Plato,  is  undoubtedly  right 
in  what  he  says  of  spirit  influence.  But  when  he  gives  us 
to  suppose  that  the  influence  is  unconsciously  received,  he 
omits   an  important   qualification :    he  should   have   said, 


MAN   A   COMPLEX    BEING.  289 

itnconsciously  to  our  normal  and  subordinate  apprehension. 
The  thought  must  fall  on  utterly  barren  soil  if  there  is  no 
conscious  receptivit}^,  however  occult,  for  its  germination. 

It  is  only  by  a  resort  to  highly  metaphj'sical  subtleties 
that  Hartmann  can  make  a  show  of  defending  his  thesis. 
The  weak  point  in  his  system  has  been  ably  exposed  hy 
Kirchmann,  who  says : 

"  Hartmann's  idea  of  the  unconscious  includes  all  the 
characteristics  which  impart  to  human  knowledge  the  qual- 
ity conscious.  The  form  of  conscious  knowledge  depends 
on  the  following  conditions:  (1)  Its  contents  are  given 
under  the  form  of  knowledge  ;  (2)  this  knowledge  knows 
this  form,  or,  in  other  words,  the  knowledge,  besides  its 
contents,  knows  itself  as  knowledge  (is  self-conscious)  ; 
(3)  the  knowledge  can  reassemble  the  numerous  elements, 
one  after  the  other,  and  co-ordinate  them  according  to  their 
relations  ;  (4)  the  knowledge,  in  spite  of  the  rich  diversity 
of  its  contents,  and  the  successive  appearance  of  its  ideas, 
as  separated  in  time,  seizes  on  the  idea  of  itself  as  a  unit}'. 
Of  these  determinations,  proper  to  the  form  of  knowledge, 
the  Unconscious  Thought  possesses  incontestably  the  first, 
the  second,  and  even  the  fourth,  according  to  Flartmann's 
own  showing.  The  Unconscious  Thought,  in  effect,  pos- 
sesses reason,  and  manifests  it  moreover,  because  it  joins 
particular  ideas,  one  to  the  other,  by  the  tie  of  means  to 
end  ;  and  here  comes  in  the  third  attribute,  while  the  fourtli 
results  sufficientl}'  from  the  universal  unity  accorded  to  the 
Unconscious." 

To  these  affirmations  Ifartmann  replies  that  "  the  Un- 
conscious Thought  does  not  recognize  a  separation  between 
the  form  and  the  contents  of  the  knowledge,  the  subject 
and  the  object,  in  the  act  of  thinking ;  that  it  is  just  here 
that  the  subject  and  the  object  are  intimately  identical,  or 
rather  that  nothing  distinguishes  them  absoluteh^,  since 
the}^  are  not  yet  risen  out  of  their  state  of  original  indif- 
ference." 

This  mere  theory'  that  the  knower  does  not  know  that  he 
knows,  is  fairly  offset,  if  not  annulled,  by  the  counter 
19 


290  DISCRETE   MENTAL  STATES. 

theor}'  that  knowledge  is  not  knowledge  without  a  con- 
sciousness of  it.  The  whole  drift  of  my  facts  has  been  to 
show  that  Mind  active  is  the  equivalent  of  consciousness. 

Clairvoyance  is  sometimes  manifested  in  a  state  of  ordi- 
nary  consciousness.  Schopenhauer  testifies  to  this  in  his 
own  case.  Zschokke  does  the  same.  I  have  frequentlj^ 
known  Charles  H.  Foster,  the  medium,  while  normally 
conscious,  read  what  was  written  on  a  tightly  folded  pellet. 

According  to  Hartmann,  clairvo3'ance  is  merely  "  a  finite 
Manifestation  of  the  infinite  prevision  of  the  Unconscious, 
in  which  the  seer  and  the  seen  are  identical."  Let  us  see 
what  this  theory  involves  in  the  case  of  the  conscious  clair- 
vo^'ant.  The  Unconscious  Infinite  discerns  what  is  wanted 
b}^  the  Conscious  Finite,  answers  the  want,  prompts  him 
to  detect  among  a  dozen  folded  pellets  the  right  one,  and 
to  read  what  is  written  on  it,  —  and  does  all  this  blindl}^ 
and  without  a  purpose.  Only  by  robbing  intelligence  of  all 
its  human  analogies,  and  making  it  something  distinct  from 
any  human  experience,  can  such  a  theory  be  maintained. 
Is  there  any  conceivable  reason  why  the  intelligence  cred- 
ited to  the  Unconscious  is  not  as  distinctly  conscious  as 
any  human  act  of  discernment,  discrimination,  and  com- 
munication can  be  ? 

Hartmann  is  a  moyiist  —  that  is,  a  believer  in  the  One- 
ness of  all  things.  Haeckel,  also  a  monist,  ridicules  the 
manifestations  through  Slade,  and  sneers  at  Hartmann  for 
believing  in  Zollner's  experiments  confirming  the  fact  of 
independent  writing  and  other  phenomena.  It  is  from  his 
a  priori  assumptions  that  Haeckel  passes  judgment  on 
those  facts  of  experience  which  he  presumes  to  deny :  and 
3'et  he  would  have  the  world  think  that  he  is  faithful  to  the 
experimental  method.  It  would  seem  that  when  his  theory 
is  interfered  with,  a  great  physicist  ma}'  fall  back  on  his 
"  intuitions"  as  confidently  as  any  seer. 

Admitting  the  facts  of  Spiritualism,  Hartmann  does  not 


MAN   A    COMPLEX   BEING.  291 

abandon  the  hope  of  making  them  fit  into  his  Saclducean 
and  pessimistic  S3'stem.  His  objections  to  the  spiritual 
theory  are  expressed  in  a  letter  to  my  friend,  Dr.  G. 
Bloede,  of  Brookl}'!!,  N.  Y.,  one  of  the  most  intelligent 
investigators  of  the  supersensiial  phenomena.  Ilartmann 
writes : 

(1)  "If  the  spirits  are  unable  to  act  without  a  living 
medium  —  if  they  have  need  of  its  unconscious  will  for 
their  mediation  —  we  may  as  well  content  ourselves  with 
this  unconscious  will  as  a  cause." 

(2)  "  If  we  have  to  presume  the  spirits  to  be  deceased 
persons,  we  would  acknowledge  thereby  that  men  possess 
faculties  of  which  they  are  unconscious  as  long  as  they 
live." 

(3)  "If  this  be  so,  then  living  men,  too,  could  use  those 
faculties  unconscioush'." 

(4)  "  The  contents  of  the  communications  often,  in- 
deed, surpass  the  intelligence  of  the  media,  but  never  that 
of  the  persons  present  (sitters),  and  are,  in  the  average, 
proportioned  to  the  latter." 

Let  us  take  up  Hartmann's  objections  in  their  order. 
(1)  He  assumes  that  spirits  are  unable  to  act  without  a 
living  medium.  But  this  is  far  from  being  an  admitted 
fact.  The  phenomena  of  haunted  houses,  the  apparitions 
seen  b}'  persons  not  medially  gifted,  and  when  no  medium 
is  present,  the  stone-throwing  occurrences,  the  instances 
on  record  in  which  coflSns  have  been  displaced  without  me- 
dial aid,  all  show  that  there  ma}^  be  independent  spirit 
sction. 

It  is  ni)t  true  that  the  spirit  always  operates  through  the 
"unconscious  will"  of  the  medium,  and  here  the  pith  of 
Hartmann's  objection  is  taken  away.  I  have  already  men- 
tioned the  instances  in  which  clairvoyance  has  been  prac- 
tised by  Foster  and  others  while  normall}'  conscious.  In 
the  case  of  Mrs.  Andrews,  of  Moravia,  N.  Y.,  through 
whom   remarkable  materializations  have  taken  place,  the 


292  DISCRETE   MENTAL   STATES. 

medium  is  unentranced  and  wholly  conscious.  The  will 
may  be  passive ;  it  is  not  unconscious.  And  from  facts 
already  given  it  has  been  seen  that  even  where  the  medium 
is  apparently  unconscious  (so  far  as  we  can  judge  by  our 
external  senses),  he  may  at  the  same  time  be  in  the  exercise 
of  a  superior  consciousness.  Thus  the  facts  show  that 
Ilartmann's  objection  that  the  spirits  require  "  the  medi- 
um's unconscious  will"  is  founded  in  ignorance  on  his  part. 

In  regard  to  the  materialization  phenomena,  the  theory 
that  man  can  act  as  a  spirit,  produce  any  number  of  form- 
manifestations,  and  other  phenomena,  while  he  is  3'et  teth- 
ered to  the  earth -bod}^  surely  justifies  the  theory  that  he 
may  do  as  much,  and  more,  when  wholly  detached  from 
that  body.  He  may  then  command  those  higher  grades  of 
matter,  of  the  phenomena, —  proving  one  of  which,  the  fourth 
state,  or  "  radiant  matter," — Wm.Crookes  remarks  :  "  These 
phenomena  differ  so  greatly  from  those  presented  hy  gas 
in  its  ordinary  tension,  that  we  are  in  the  presence  of  a 
fourth  condition  of  matter,  which  is  as  far  removed  from 
the  gaseous  condition  as  gas  is  from  the  liquid  condition." 
That  there  is  an  increase  of  energy  as  matter  becomes  more 
sublimated  and  refined,  is  also  clearly  proved  by  Crookes's 
experiments. 

(2)  The  supposition  that  there  are  spirits  of  deceased 
persons,  Hartmann  tells  us,  involves  the  acknowledgment 
that  men  possess  faculties  of  which  thej^  are  unconscious 
as  long  as  they  live.  And  this  is  just  the  great  fact  that  I 
have  been  contending  for  —  that  men  do  indeed  possess 
such  faculties.  Ilartmann's  objection,  which  he  would  pre- 
sent as  a  dilemma,  is  therefore  accepted  as  a  confirmation, 
when  coupled  with  the  supplementary  fact  of  discrete  mental 
states,  of  the  spiritual  theory.  How  are  we  to  account  for 
the  phenomena  in  the  case  of  Laura  JBridgman,  whose  only 
medium  of  communication  with  the  world  of  intelligence 
was  by  the  sense  of  touch,  except  on  the  theory  of  the 


MAN   A   COMPLEX   BEING.  293 

existence  of  spiritual  senses,  which,  while  the  physical  were 
shut  up,  made  possible  the  mental  development  to  which 
she  attained? 

(3)  "But,"  objects  Hartmann,  "  if  this  be  so,"  {i.  e. 
if  men  have  spiritual  faculties,)  "  then  living  men,  too, 
could  use  those  faculties  unconsciously."  And,  as  I  have 
alread}^  claimed,  it  is  consistent  with  the  spiritual  theor}^ 
that  certain  high  spiritual  faculties,  like  prevision  and  divi- 
nation, should  be  sometimes  exercised  by  man  in  the  flesh, 
and  he  have  no  consciousness  of  it  in  his  normal  state.  I 
have  shown  that  in  sleep,  in  the  .  act  of  drowning,  and 
sometimes  irrespectivel}^  of  any  abnormal  conditions,  facul- 
ties may  be  developed,  of  which  we  have  no  consciousness 
in  our  normal  state.  That  this  was  the  belief  of  some  of 
the  ancient  sages,  from  P3^thagoras  to  Plutarch,  I  have  also 
shown. 

Schelling  distinguishes  the  "nature-element"  of  the 
Deity  from  his  higher  conscious  intelligence  ;  and  there 
may  be  a  great  truth  in  this,  if  man  is  truly  made  in  the 
divine  image.  If  philosophical  science  can  come  so  near 
to  the  borders  of  Theism  as  to  admit  a  Divine  Intelligence 
and  Will,  it  is  but  taking  one  step  more,  and  a  very  short 
one,  into  an  ampler  and  higher  generalization,  to  admit  a 
Divine  consciousness. 

(4)  Hartmann's  fourth  and  last  objection  is  an  additional 
proof  of  his  lack  of  acquaintance  with  the  phenomenon. 
I  have  shown  that  the  entranced  medium's  discourse  ma}^ 
be  often  proportioned  to  his  own  intelligence  and  that  of 
the  persons  present.  But  there  are  instances  without  num- 
ber where  the  intelligence  mediallj'  manifested  is  superior 
to  that  of  the  medium  and  of  all  the  sitters,  and  can  be 
accounted  for  only  as  coming,  mediatel}^  or  immediatelj^, 
from  an  independent  spirit. 

Dr.  Bloede,  who  shows  the  insufficiency  of  this  fourth 
objection  to  support  the  conclusions  which  Hartmann  would 


294  DISCRETE    MENTAL    STATES. 

base  upon  it,  remarks:  "The  trouble  with  these  German 
philosophers,  who,  though  claiming  the  privilege  of  calling 
their  researches  preeminently  '  scientific,'  are  constantly 
constructing  the  world  from  the  depths  of  their  metaphj'sical 
vagaries,  is  their  almost  total  ignorance  of  the  overwhelm- 
ing mass  of  spiritualistic  facts,  and  their  aversion  to  observ- 
ing such  when  an  occasion  is  offered  them." 

Hartmann  contends  that  consciousness  does  not  belong 
to  the  essence,  but  only  to  the  phenomenal  form,  or  mani- 
festation, of  individual  being.  On  the  contrarj^,  our  spirit- 
ual facts  impress  it  upon  us  that  mind,  conscious  of  an  ob- 
ject, is  the  very  essence  of  being.  Extinguish  conscious- 
ness of  ever3^  kind,  finite  and  infinite,  and  the  universe  be- 
comes meaningless  and  objectless.  There  can  be  no  knowl- 
edge without  a  knower ;  and,  in  order  to  know,  we  must  be 
conscious  of  knowing.  The  very  phrase  unconscious  knoid- 
eclge  is  logically  indefensible. 

The  phenomena  classed  under  the  generalization  of  "  con- 
sciousness "  have  bafiSed  the  penetration  of  the  profoundest 
thinkers.  The  subject  is  still  in  dispute  between  the  mate- 
rialistic philosophers  and  those  who  believe  in  a  ps^xhical 
element  in  man.  vSpiritualism,  in  its  proofs  of  a  spiritual 
organism,  and  of  discrete  mental  states,  throws  a  light  on 
the  question  which  must  bring  the  philosophy  of  the  future 
into  accord  with  the  unquestionable  facts. 


FACTS   MUST  RULE.  295 


CHAPTER    X. 

MORE   ANSWERS  TO  OBJECTIONS.  —  SUPERSENSUAL    PROOFS. — ■ 

MESSRS.    MERCER   AND    SWING    ON    SPIRITUALISM.  KANT's 

REMARKABLE  PREDICTION. SHELLEY  INTUITIVELY  A  SPIR- 
ITUALIST.   THE    COMTIAN    OBJECTIONS. 

Undiscriminating  opponents  have  tried  to  make  Spirit- 
ualism responsible  for  much  more  than  belongs  to  it.  Rightly 
defined,  it  is  simply  belief  in  the  spiritual  nature  and  con- 
tinuous life  of  man,  and  in  the  power  of  freed  spirits  to 
communicate  in  some  way,  subjectivel}"  or  objectivel}',  with 
individuals  still  in  the  earth-life. 

The  attempt  to  identify  Spiritualism  proper  with  any  other 
doctrines,  collateral  and  independent,  whether  they  come 
from  freed  spirits  or  from  mortal  seers,  is  the  source  of 
much  misapprehension  and  injustice.  The  various  opinions 
which  so-called  Spiritualists  may  hold  upon  subjects  reli- 
gious, moral,  social,  or  political,  will  therefore  be  dismissed 
b}^  the  candid  philosopher  as  foreign  to  the  one  question  — 
Has  Spiritualism  an  actual  basis  of  facts  ? 

As  the  same  sun  which  ripens  fruit  maj'  quicken  corrup- 
tion, so  Spiritualism  may  have  a  good  or  bad  effect,  accord- 
ing to  the  state  of  the  recipient.  To  charge  upon  it  the 
demerits  of  its  professors  is  as  gross  an  injustice  as  it 
would  be  to  charge  moral  delinquencies  upon  the  moral 
law.  The  arts  of  printing,  of  photography,  of  distillation, 
may  all  be  used  to  subserve  foul  purposes  as  well  as  good. 
The  art  of  writing  makes  possible  the  crime  of  forgerv. 
Obvious  as  these  considerations  are,  they  are  repeatedly 


296  THE   UNSEEN    WORLD    A    REALITY. 

overlooked  by  our  assailants.  Spiritualism  does  not  make 
characters,  it  finds  them  made.  To  the  good  it  is  an  aid, 
like  all  divine  truth,  to  further  good.  B}^  the  bad  its  very 
good  ma}'  be  made  the  means  of  evil.  The  tendency'  to 
criminate  Spiritualism  itself  because  the  unwise  or  the  un- 
principled maj'  adopt  it,  or  because  the  unthinking  ma^^ 
misconstrue  it,  or  the  incautious  be  misled  by  it,  is  as  con- 
trar}'  to  reason  as  it  would  be  to  decry  religion  because 
intemperate  Christian  preachers  ma}'  seem  to  have  driven 
sensitive  minds  to  insanit3\ 

The  clergy,  one  would  think,  would  welcome  our  facts  as 
giving  the  most  cogent  objective  proofs  of  the  continuity 
of  our  individuality,  unimpaired  bej'ond  the  tomb.  But 
some  of  them  have  raised  objections  which  a  little  more 
reflection  would  have  checked.  The  Rev.  David  Swing,  of 
Chicago,  says,  "  In  modern  Spiritualism  the  mind  falls  into 
a  trance,  and  is  eloquent  without  labor,  wise  without  study, 
clairvoj'ant  without  ej^es,  artistic  without  study  or  taste  ;  " 
mediums  become  "  geographers  without  travels,  readers  of 
the  strata  of  the  earth  without  sinking  a  shaft."  Hence, 
he  argues,  Spiritualism  is  "a  new  efl'ort  to  leap  over  the 
great  mediatorial  laws "  by  which  individual  effort,  skill, 
and  labor  "must  be  used  for  the  accomplishment  of  an 
object." 

It  would  be  a  suflScient  reply  to  this  to  sa}' :  The  facts 
persist,  notwithstanding  your  disapproval  of  them.  In- 
stead of  taking  the  trouble  to  verify  them  experimentall}', 
the  critic  sits  in  his  closet  and  evolves  his  objections  from 
his  own  a  priGri  speculations.  So  Melancthon  and  other 
great  men,  instead  of  qualifying  themselves  by  study  to 
pass  an  opinion  on  the  Copernican  sj'stem,  raised  futile  ob- 
jections out  of  their  limited  knowledge. 

The  bo}'  Bidder  being  asked  how  he  did  certain  won- 
derful computations,  replied,  "I  don't  do  it,  I  see  it." 
When  the  son  of  Bishop  Lee,  at  a  distance  of  some  three 


FACTS   MUST   RULE.  297 

hundred  miles,  was  waked  by  the  shock  of  his  father's  fall, 
was  he  not  ' '  a  geographer  without  travelling  "  ?  When 
Captain  Yount,  as  the  Rev.  Horace  Bushnell  narrates,  saw 
in  a  dream  a  compan}^  of  emigrants  in  the  Carson-valley 
Pass,  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  off,  perishing  in  the  snow, 
and  in  his  simplicity,  all  on  the  faith  of  a  dream,  sent  a 
party  of  men  to  their  relief,  and  thus  saved  many  lives,  — 
was  not  he  too  "  a  geographer  without  travelling"? 

When,  as  Richelieu  relates,  the  prevost  of  the  city  of 
Pithiviers,  in  France,  while  plaj'ing  cards  in  his  house,  sud- 
denl}^  hesitated,  fell  into  deep  musing,  and  then,  turning  to 
those  present,  solemnly  said,  "The  king  has  just  been 
murdered,"  and  it  proved  true  that  on4hat  same  evening, 
at  the  same  hour  of  4  p.  m.,  Henry  IV.  had  really  been 
assassinated,  — was  not  the  French  officer  "  eloquent  with- 
out laboi',  wise  without  studj^  clairvoyant  without  eyes  "  ? 

AYhen  Foster,  Watkins,  and  other  sensitives  tell  me  what 
is  written  on  tightly  folded  pellets,  without  once  touching 
them,  where  is  the  phj'sical  organ  through  the  emplo3'ment 
of  which  can  be  explained  the  evidence  of  such  a  power  ? 

Since  the  objections  which  Mr.  Swing  raises  are  annulled 
b}^  constantly  recurring  facts,  would  it  not  be  the  better 
plan  to  investigate  the  phenomena  experimentallj'  before 
wasting  time  in  constructing  card-houses  of  imaginary  dis- 
proofs ? 

The  rapid  production  of  messages  in  a  handwriting  where 
the  letters  are  reversed  as  they  would  be  in  setting  script 
type  for  printing,  and  where  we  have  to  read  them  from  a 
reflection  in  a  mirror,  is  a  common  medial  phenomenon  — 
the  medium  in  his  normal  state  being  wholl}^  unskilled  in 
executing  such  writing.  Does  not  this  show  by  analogy 
that  he  may  indeed  be  "  artistic  without  study"? 

But  there  is  another  consideration  which  Mr.  Swing,  a 
theologian  and  a  bibhcal  expounder,  should  not  have  over- 
looked.    When  he  objects  to  the  fact  of  abnormal  intelli- 


298  THE    UNSEEN   WORLD    A    REALITY. 

gence  tlirougli  "  minds  that  fall  into  a  trance,"  how  can  he 
justify  himself  in  preaching  every  week  from  texts  involv- 
ing the  very  phenomenon  he  would  discredit?  Read  the 
account  of  Balaam's  "  falling  into  a  trance,  but  having  his 
e^'es  open,"  and  being  constrained' to  utter  things  opposed 
to  his  own  wishes.  See  John's  Revelation.  Read  Acts, 
9th  and  10th;  and  Paul's  account  of  "his  entrancement 
(Acts  xxii.)  ;  and  again  2d  Corinthians  xii.  2-4.  The 
very  theor}^  of  the  Bible's  authority  rests  on  the  assump- 
tion that  it  came  through  the  mediation  of  persons  inspired, 
under  influence,  "  eloquent  without  labor." 

Is  Mr.  Swing  prepared  to  throw  discredit  on  the  biblical 
record,  or  will  he  take  refuge  behind  the  indolent  and  un- 
scientific assumption  that  entrancement  was  limited  to 
"  Bible  times,"  and  that  human  beings  in  our  day  are  never 
subject  to  a  similar  influence  ?  When  an  uneducated  youth 
displays  an  inexplicable  facility  of  arithmetical  computa- 
tion, like  Colburn  and  Bidder,  or  an  amazing  musical  pro- 
ficiency, like  the  child  Mozart,  where  do  we  find  the  proofs 
of  study  and  labor,  as  preparatory^  to  the  display  of  such 
powers?  Mozart  said  of  his  musical  ideas,  '' Whence  and 
how  the}"  come,  I  know  not,  nor  can  I  force  them.  Those 
ideas  that  please  me  I  retain  in  my  memory."  Here  the 
theory  of  a  discrete  mental  state,  where  the  mind  ma}^  be 
in  communication  with  some  influencing  spirit,  is  not  inap- 
plicable. 

My  friend,  William  White,  of  London,  author  of  the 
most  liberal,  independent,  and  interesting  Life  of  Sweden- 
borg  3'^et  published,  and  containing  facts  given  in  no  other 
biograph}"  of  the  great  Swedish  seer,  remarks : 

"  Our  afl'ections,  thoughts,  and  dreams  are  spiritual 
manifestations  ;  our  good  thoughts  arise  from  the  presence 
of  celestial  comrades,  and  our  evil  thoughts  are  due  to  our 
infernal  acquaintance.  We  are,  therefore,  one  and  all, 
mediums ;    and  a  disciple  of  Swedenborg  would  maintain 


FACTS    MUST   RULE.  299 

that  spiritual  manifestations  are  co-extensive  with  hnmau 
activity.  What  is  speciall,y  new  in  Spiritualism  over  Swe- 
denborg,  is  the  action  of  spirits  external  to  the  human 
medium  —  a  possibiUty  of  which  I  incline  to  think  Swede n- 
borg  was  ignorant." 

In  a  discourse  delivered  in  Chicago  in  1878,  the  Rev.  L. 
P.  Mercer,  a  Swedenborgian,  remarks : 

"Is  it  any  wonder  that  the  streams  of  tendenc}^  run  to  a 
materialism  which  denies  an}^  life  hereafter,  an  epicurean- 
ism which  cares  nothing  about  it,  and  a  Spiritualism  which 
is  only  separated  one  remove  from  either,  without  any 
necessary  belief  in  God  or  inspiration  of  righteousness  ?  " 

Truly,  I  would  have  my  belief  in  God- voluntary  and  not 
necessar}^,  except  in  the  sense  of  that  divine  constraint  of 
universal  reason  which  compels  us  to  admit  that  the  whole 
is  greater  than  a  part.  Belief  in  human  immortalit}^  nia}^, 
as  we  all  know,  be  entertained  independently  of  an}^  belief 
in  God.  That  it  may  be  so  entertained  logically  and 
rationally,  is  a  wholly  separate  question,  into  the  discussion 
of  which  I  do  not  propose  now  to  enter. 

To  the  patient  thinker  an  all-embracing  theism  may  seem 
as  clear  a  deduction  from  the  laws  of  reason  and  of  Spirit- 
ualism, as  it  can  be  from  the  assumption  that  Swedenborg 
is  infallible,  and  that  what  he  says  of  God  must  be  ac- 
cepted in  every  particular.  Spiritualism  does  not  say  to 
us,  "There  is  one  God,  and  Spiritualism  is  his  prophet," 
but  it  points  us  to  facts,  by  the  faithful  stud}^  of  which  we 
may  arrive  at  the  august  conviction  of  a  Supreme  Spirit. 

Now  what  is  the  theism  which  Mr.  Mercer  would  com- 
mend to  us  as  his  "  necessary  belief"  in  God,  in  place  of 
that  which  all  the  facts  of  universal  nature,  incalculably 
corroborated  by  our  proofs  of  immortahty,  offer  to  the 
reverent  and  earnest  seeker  after  truth  ?  The  former  is  a 
theism  which  would  have  us  believe  that  in  the  3^ear  1745, 
in  the  cit}-  of  London,  as  one  Emanuel  Swedenborg  sat  in 


300  THE  UNSEEN   WORLD   A    REALITY. 

his  room  in  his  boarding-house,  after  dinner,  the  Lord  God, 
in  the  form  and  dress  of  a  man,  came  to  him  and  said, 
"  Eat  not  too  much  ;  "  and  afterwards  added,  "  I  am  God 
the  Lord,  the  Creator  and  Redeemer  of  this  world." 

The  construction  which  Spirituahsts  put  on  this  extraor- 
dinar3'  claim  is,  that  Swedenborg,  whom  we  all  reverence 
and  regard  affectionatel}"  as  a  great  and  good  man,  subject 
to  medial  impressions,  was,  at  the  time  referred  to,  either 
under  a  hallucination,  partly  produced  b}^  eating  too  much, 
or  was  under  the  influence  of  some  psychologizing  spirit, 
who  claimed  to  be  the  Hebrew  Jehovah  and  the  infinite 
God. 

One  of  the  great  benefits  which  the  Spiritualism  of  our 
day  is  imparting  to  civilization  is  the  evidence  it  brings 
that  spirits  .ma}^  be  as  fallible  as  mortals  ;  that  the  wisest 
seer  ma}^  mix  error  with  truth  ;  that  we  must  try  both 
spirit  and  seer,  even  though  they  maj"  preface  their  utter- 
ances with  a  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord." 

Our  stupendous  facts  are  not  vouchsafed  to  save  us  the 
trouble  of  doing  our  own  thinking ;  they  are  given  to 
widen  the  sphere  of  thought  and  impart  the  stimulus  of 
immortal  motives.  Those  persons  who  would  throw  off 
individual  responsibilit}',  scrutiny',  and  labor  are  always 
liable  to  be  misled  by  the  impostures  of  communicating 
spirits,  or  the  dictations  of  professing  seers  and  trance 
orators. 

It  may  be  true,  as  Mr.  Mercer  says,  that  there  is  a  Spir- 
itualism onl}^  separated  one  remove  from  "a  materialism 
which  denies  any  life  hereafter  ;  "  or  that  there  is  a  Spirit- 
uahsm  only  one  remove  from  "an  epicureanism  which 
cares  nothing  about  any  Ufe  hereafter." 

The  intuitive  desire  for  continuous  life  is  largely  a  matter 
of  temperament.  I  have  a  friend,  a"  Spiritualist  by  study 
and  experience,  who  tells  me:  "It  is  a  matter  of  indif- 
ference to  me  —  I  have  no  desire  to  live  again  ;  but  I  know 


FACTS   MUST   RULE.  301 

I  shall  have  to  face  it."  My  old  acquaintance,  Harriet 
Martineau,  repudiating  as  nonsense  all  belief  in  a  future 
life,  said,  some  time  during  the  last  decade  of  her  earth- 
life,  ''I  see  no  particular  reason  why  Harriet  Martineau 
should  be  continued."  My  friend  and  correspondent.  Pro- 
fessor Francis  W.  Newman,  of  England,  not  a  Spiritualist 
but  a  devout  theist,  confesses  that  the  desire  for  another 
life  is  in  him  "  very  weak."  William  Humboldt,  David  A. 
Strauss,  and  others,  have  expressed  similar  sentiments. 
And  so,  many  persons,  neither  thoughtful  nor  reverent, 
may  believe  in  Spiritualism,  and  not  realize  or  care  for  its 
ineffable  significance  and  its  transcendent  contents.  Such 
apathy  or  such  worldly  indifference  is  no  more  to  be  cred- 
ited to  Spiritualism  than  moral  blindness  is  to  Christianity. 

Are  we  likely  to  be  any  the  less  devout  believers  in  God 
than  the  Swedenborgians,  because  we  refuse  to  accept  any 
diagram,  whether  from  seer  or  saint,  from  priest  or  philos- 
opher, of  that  inscrutable  Being,  of  whom  it  was  said  by 
St.  Denis,  "It  is  when  we  acknowledge  that  we  do  not 
know  God,  that  we  know  him  best"? 

In  proving  to  us  the  reality  of  an  und3^ing  spiritual 
principle  in  finite  man,  Spiritualism  helps  us  to  rise  to  the 
sublime  realization  of  a  supreme  Spiritual  Principle,  behind 
and  beyond  all  that  ma}^  seem  partial  disorder  in  the  uni- 
verse ;  and  from  the  summit  of  that  principle  Faith  may 
look  up  through  the  veiling  atmosphere  to  an  Infinite  Spirit, 
transcendently  conscious,  and  in  that  sense  personal  and 
super-personal,  in  whom  inheres  all  that  there  is  of  order, 
of  life,  of  mind,  and  beautj',  in  the  cosmos  and  in  the  soul 
of  man. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Swing  tells  his  hearers  that  ours  is  "  a 
more  material  kind  of  Spiritualism"  than  that  of  Sweden- 
borg,  inasmuch  as  we  hold  that  there  is  "an  actual  ex- 
change of  language  and  sentiment  between  those  who  once 
lived  and  those  who  live  now."     But  this  is  precisely  what 


802  THE    UNSEEN    WORLD    A    REALITY. 

SwecTenborg  also  held.  The  Queen  of  Sweden  said  to  him, 
"•Is  it  true  3'ou  can  converse  with  the  dead ? "  And  his 
repty  was,  "  Yes."  "Is  it  a  science  that  can  be  commu- 
nicated to  others?"  she  asked.  "No."  "What  is  it, 
then?  "  "A  gift  of  the  Lord."  And  a  higher  than  Swe- 
denborg  manifested  the  same  gift.  John  the  Revelator 
declares  that  he  conversed  with  an  angel,  who,  when  John 
fell  down  to  worship  before  his  feet,  said  to  him,  "  See 
thou  do  it  not ;  for  I  am  thy  fellow-servant,  and  of  thy 
brethren  the  prophets."  In  this  "  exchange  of  language 
and  sentiment,"  the  angel  gives  us  distinctly  to  understand 
that  he  is  an  ex-human  being,  and  that  he  is  exchanging 
"  language  and  sentiment"  with  an  individual  still  alive  in 
the  flesh.  Other  biblical  passages  could  be  quoted  to  show 
that  by  an  angel  was  meant  a  spirit-man. 

Will  Mr.  Swing,  with  his  admirable  powers  of  acute 
analysis,  please  explain  to  us  how  it  is  that  what  is  ex- 
pressly taught  in  the  New  Testament  and  in  the  writings 
of  Swedenborg,  is  any  less  "  material"  than  the  same  fact 
revealed  in  the  phenomena  of  Spiritualism?  Does  he  reject 
the  testimony  of  John  the  Revelator  as  to  the  appearance 
and  conversation  of  a  human  spirit  or  angel  ? 

Mr.  Swing  further  tells  his  hearers  that  the  attempts  of 
Spiritualists  to  rule  out  spurious  phenomena,  is  an  evidence 
that  they  are  not  yet  perfectly  assured  that  ' '  the  voices 
and  forms  and  music  might  not  be  all  of  an  earthly  nature 
and  origin." 

This  objection  is  much  as  if  one  should  say  that  the 
passage  of  laws  against  counterfeiting  is  a  proof  that  legis- 
lators disbelieve  in  genuine  money.  The  faith  of  the 
experienced  investigator  in  the  genuine  is  not  affected  one 
jot  or  tittle  by  encountering  frauds,  even  should  these 
come  from  a  medium  in  good  repute.^  Our  admitted  phe- 
nomena are  placed  far  be3'ond  all  danger  from  that  source. 
Facts  like  pneumatography  and  clairvoyance  do  not  depend 


FACTS   MUST   RULE.  '  80^ 

on  the  veracit}^  of  a  medium,  and  would  not  be  affected  by 
bis  repudiation  of  them. 

Mr.  Saving  says:  "God  has  thus  far  kept  some  door 
dosed  against  returning  feet.  No  man  has  yet  thrown 
hack  the  bolts.''  Then  what  of  the  rehgion  mainly  founded 
on  the  tradition  that  the  man  Jesus  came  back  from  the 
dead  ?  The  Bible  contradicts  Mr.  Swing  on  almost  every 
page  :  does  he  repudiate  all  such  i^assages  as  whollj^  mj^th- 
ical?     So  does  not  the  modern  Spiritualist. 

"  One  may  well  wish,"  he  sa3's,  "  that  Spiritualism  might, 
in  its  highest  form,  be  true."  But  wh}^  should  it  not  be 
true  in  all  its  forms,  high  and  low,  if  the  spirit- world  is 
peopled  from  this,  as  he  teaches?  He  does'  not  hold  that 
sinners  will  be  at  once  transformed  into  saints,  or  fools 
into  sages.  Wh}^  should  he  not  rationally  expect  that  if 
the  fools  and  sinners  form  the  majorit}^  here,  they  maj^ 
form  the  majority  in  the  vestibule  of  the  spirit-world  ? 

Spiritualism,  like  every  other  great  fact  of  nature,  is 
full  of  what  to  our  short-sightedness  is  obscure,  contra- 
dictorj',  baffling,  and,  to  use  Mr.  Swing's  alarming  word, 
"undignified."  And  wh}^  not?  It  but  introduces  us  to 
the  rudiments  of  the  great  volume  of  creation. 

One  grand  truth,  at  least,  has  modern  Spiritualism  ex- 
torted from  this  reticent  Nature :  the  truth,  namely,  that 
the  heart's  premonitions,  —  that  the  intuitions  and  pre- 
visions of  saints,  seers,  mediums,  and  little  children,  in  all 
times,  and  among  all  races  of  men,  —  were  not  founded  in 
delusion,  but  that  they  really  presignified  the  veritable, 
objective  fact  that  our  departed  ones  still  live,  and  mov^e, 
and  have  their  being. 

Kant  was  as  remarkable  for  his  intuitional  as  for  his 
reasoning  powers.  It  was  a  rare  combination.  I  have 
quoted  elsewhere  a  brief  extract  from  his  remarks  on  the 
probability  of  a  spirit- world.  I  here  give  them  more  at 
length,  as  quoted  b}^  Zollner,  and  translated  by  Massey, 


304  THE   UNSEEN   WORLD    A    REALITY. 

premising  that  in  his  use  of  the  word  immaterial^  Kant 
does  not  mean  unsubstantial.  That  he  was  dissatisfied 
with  the  Cartesian,  "  hj'pothetical"  notion  of  spirit  is 
obvious : 

"  I  confess  I  am  much  inchned  to  assert  the  existence 
of  immaterial  beings  in  this  world,  and  to  class  my  soul 
itself  in  the  category-  of  these  beings." 

"We  can  imagine  the  possibility  of  the  existence  of 
immaterial  beings  without  the  fear  of  being  refuted,  though, 
at  the  same  time,  without  the.  hope  of  being  able  to  dem- 
onstrate their  existence  by  reason.  Such  spiritual  beings 
would  exist  in  space,  and  the  latter  notwithstanding  would 
remain  penetrable  for  material  beings,  because  their  pres- 
ence would  implj"  an  acting  power  in  space,  but  not  a 
Jilling  of  it,  i.  (?.,  a  resistance  causing  sohdit3\" 

"It  is,  therefore,  as  good  as  demonstrated,  or  it  could 
be  easily  proved  if  we  were  to  enter  into  it  at  some 
length  ;  or,  better  still,  it  loill  he  proved  in  the  future  —  I  do 
not  know  luhere  and  luhen  —  that  also  in  this  life  the  human 
sold  stands  in  an  indissoluble  commumon  ivith  all  the  imma- 
terial beings  of  the  spiritual  loorld;  that  it  produces  effects 
in  them^  and  in  exchange  receives  impressions  from  them, 
without^  however,  becoming  conscious  of  them,  so  long  as  cdl 
stands  luell." 

"  It  would  be  a  blessing  if  such  a  systematic  constitution 
of  the  spiritual  world,  as  conceived  hy  us,  had  not  merely 
to  be  inferred  from  the  too  liypotheticcd  conception  of  the 
spiritual  nature  generallj^  but  would  be  inferred,  or  at  least 
conjectured  as  pjrobable,  from  some  reed  and  generally  ac- 
knowledged observation." 

This  is  remarkable  language,  and  well  worthy  of  the  read- 
er's profound  consideration.  Kant,  among  philosophers, 
ranks  with  Plato,  Aristotle,  and  Leibnitz.  He  tells  us  sub- 
stantiall}-  —  and  this  was  more  than  a  centur}^  ago  —  that  the 
fact  of  a  communion  of  the  human  soul,  even  in  this  life, 
with  the  beings  of  the  spiritual  world,  will  be  proved  in  the 
future.  Is  not  that  future  at  hand*?  Has  it  not  alread}- 
come?     Our  facts  fully  verify  his  prediction. 

He  goes  further.     Dissatisfied  with  the  "  too  hj^pothet- 


FACTS   MUST   RULE.  305 

ical  conception  of  the  spiritual  nature  generallj^ "  (the  Car- 
tesian conception  was  then  dominant) ,  he  declares  that  it 
would  be  a  "  blessing"  if  the  fact  of  the  intercommunion 
of  the  two  worlds,  which  he  clearly  anticipates,  could  be 
inferred,  or  at  least  conjectured  as  probable,  from  "  some 
real  and  generally  acknowledged  observation "  (Kant's 
Works,  vol.  vii.  p.  32). 

That  "observation,"  which  the  great  intellect  of  Kant 
looked  forward  to  as  something  so  desirable,  is  just  what 
those  investigators,  who  are  now  bringing  the  scientific 
method  to  bear  upon  Spiritualism,  are  desirous  of  prose- 
cuting ;  and  it  is  just  what  so  many  men  of  partial  science 
are  trying  to  discourage  and  prevent,  since,  if  Kant's 
anticipation  is  proved  true,  —  as  it  has  been  beyond  all 
peradventure  to  millions,  —  it  scatters  the  theories  of  mate- 
rialism to  the  four  winds. 

Was  Kant  in  error  in  supposing  that  the  verification  of 
an  intercommunion  between  this  and  the  spirit-world  would 
be  a  blessing?  Never  has  he  indicated  a  higher  sagacity 
than  in  putting  this  interpretation  on  the  momentous  desid- 
eratum. The  present  life  will  assume  a  new  value  and 
inierest  when  men  are  brought  up  not  merely  in  the  vacil- 
lating and  questionable  belief,  but  in  the  settled,  indubita- 
ble conviction,  that  this  life  is  really  but  one  of  the  stages 
in  an  endless  career,  and  that  the  thoughts  we  think  and 
the  deeds  we  do  here  will  certainly  affect  our  condition  and 
the  very  form  and  organic  expression  of  our  personality 
hereafter.  Let  men  from  early  childhood  to  farthest  age 
have  this  conviction  ingrained  into  their  minds,  and  by  the 
laws  of  heredity  coming  generations  must  develop  its  benefi- 
cent effect. 

What  an  illustration  we  have  in  the  case  of  Shelle}^,  the 

illustrious  poet,  of  the  struggle  of  the  intuitional  element 

in  his  nature  against  inherited  conceptions  of  life  and  its 

issue  !     His  father  and  grandfather  were  both  bigoted  athe- 

20  ' 


306  THE   UNSEEN   WORLD   A   REALITY. 

ists,  rejecting  all  belief  in  deity  and  a  future  for  man. 
Shelle}^  had  atheism  in  his  blood,  and  it  broke  out  before  he 
had  ended  his  collegiate  career.  And  3'et  in  his  poetr}'  and 
in  some  of  his  letters  he  at  times  throws  off  the  Sadducean 
incubus,  and  cognizes  his  immortality  as  clearly  as  he  ever 
did  the  sun  at  noondaj'.  In  a  letter  in  the  possession  of 
Mr.  C.  W.  Frederickson,  of  the  city  of  New  York,  ad- 
dressed by  Shelley  to  his  father-in-law,  Godwin,  are  these 
words  : 

"  With  how  many  garlands  we  can  beautif}^  the  tomb ! 
.  .  .  Surely  if  anj-  spot  in  the  world  be  sacred,  it  is  that 
in  w^hich  grief  ceases,  and  from  which,  if  the  voice  within 
our  hearts  mock  us  not  with  an  everlasting  lie,  we  spring 
upon  the  untiring  wings  of  a  pangless  and  seraphic  life  — 
those  whom  we  love  around  us  —  our  nature  universal  in- 
telligence,—  our  atmosphere,  eternal  love."  * 

At  another  time,  shortly  before  the  storm  in  the  Gulf  of 
Lerici  in  which  he  lost  his  life,  he  said:  "  Another  and  a 
more  extensive  state  of  being,  rather  than  the  complete  ex- 
tinction of  being',  will  follow  that  mj^sterious  change  which 
we  call  death."  His  x^oems  are  rich  in  j)assages  in  which 
the  spiritual  assumption  flashes  out  through  the  folds  of  his 
inherited  unbelief. 

Indeed,  poetry  loses  its  quality  of  poetry  the  moment  it 
becomes  Sadducean.  George  Eliot  (Mrs.  Lewes-Cross) 
has  to  disguise  her  dismal  unbelief  in  a  gush  of  sham  en- 
thusiasm when  she  would  pass  off  as  poetr^^  the  embodi- 
ment of  her  conception  of  our  posthumous  influence  on  the 
world  as  the  only  real  and  desirable  immortality.  So  art- 
full}^  is  the  poor,  thin,  little  conception  disguised  and  pad- 
ded out  with  swelling  words  that  the  passage  is  often 
quoted  in  religious  collections  as  expressing  the  Christian 
idea  of  a  future  state.     She  sings,  or  affects  to  sing,  thus : 

*  See  a  pamphlet  by  Charles  Sotheran  (New  York,  1875),  entitled  "  Shelley  on 
the  Immortality  of  the  Soul." 


FACTS  MUST  RULE.  307 

♦'  0,  may  I  join  the  choir  invisible 
Of  those  immortal  dead  who  live  again 
In  minds  made  better  by  their  presence.  .  .  . 
May  I  reach 

That  purest  heaven,  .  .  . 
Be  the  sweet  presence  of  a  good  diffused, 
And  in  diffusion  ever  more  intense  ! 
So  I  shall  join  the  choir  invisible, 
Whose  music  is  the  gladness  of  the  world !  " 

Upon  all  which  Mr.  Burchell's  sufficient  comment  would 
have  been,  "  Fudge  !  " 

That  there  are  persons  even  among  Spiritualists  who  are 
temperamentally  indifferent  to  a  future  life,  and  to  whom 
the  idea  of  utter  extinction  is  not  disagreeable,  I  have  al- 
ready shown.  The  assurances  of  immortality  are  based  on 
something  less  fluctuating  than  the  desires  of  the  human 
race.  The  best  men  may  be  subject  to  moods  when  it  may 
seem  to  them  that  the}^  could  "  lie  down  like  a  tired  child" 
and  welcome  an  endless  sleep.  And  so  that  state  of  mind 
which  can  regard  annihilation  as  more  desirable  than  con- 
tinuous life,  though  a  morbid  and  exceptional  state,  is  not 
wholly  out  of  the  hue  of  my  s^^mpathies.  But  the  normal 
and  healthy  state  is  undoubtedly  that  of  a  full  appreciation 
of  life  as  life ;  that  sense  of  the  well-conditioned  child  to 
whom  the  mere  act  of  living  is  joy  enough. 

An  immortality  of  post  mortem  influence  is  (in  the  esti- 
mation of  the  English  positivist,  Frederic  Harrison)  the 
right,  the  sufficient,  the  manly  aspiration.  Coirtinuation 
of  life  such  as  savages  and  little  children  imagine  —  such 
as  the  vulgar  look  forward  to  —  such  as  Socrates  and  Christ 
believed  in  —  is  to  this  superfine  philosopher  a  scandal  and 
an  offence,  exciting  onl}^  His  disdain  and  his  derision. 

In  commending  to  us  his  charming  substitute  for  the 
immortality  of  the  vulgar  conception,  he  remarks:  "Now 
we"(^.  e.  the  positivists)  "make  the  future  hope,   in  the 


308  THE   UNSEEN   WORLD   A   REALITY. 

truest  sense,  social,  inasmuch  as  our  future  is  simplj'  an 
active  existence  prolonged  by  society  J^ 

And  when  the  bereaved  mother,  mourning  for  her  darling 
child,  demurs  to  this,  and  asks,  "  What  is  to  me  the  good 
of  societ}',  if  m}"  darlings  and  I  are  to  be  no  better  than 
clods  of  the  earth  after  a  few  short  3'ears  ?  "  —  the  sublime 
Comtian  affects  to  turn  the  tables  on  her  by  repljing,  in  a 
burst  of  scorn,  —  "  This  is  the  true  materialism  !  Here  is 
the  '  phj'sical  theory '  of  another  life  !  This  is  the  un spirit- 
ual denial  of  the  soul,  the  binding  it  down  to  the  clay  of 
the  body !  " 

After  these,  his  actual  words,  it  will  not  surprise  the 
reader  to  learn  that  Mr.  Harrison  waxes  exceeding  wroth 
over  our  facts,  which,  if  true,  convert  his  cheap  thunder 
into  a  theatrical  sham ;  and  so  he  denounces  SpMtualism 
as  a  "  disgusting^  subject,"  charges  men  of  science  with 
"  dabbling  "  in  its  "  filth,"  and  describes  the  intelligent  in- 
vestigators in  London,  who  satisfied  themselves  as  to  the 
genuineness  of  the  phenomena  through  Slade,  as  "grovel- 
ling before  the  trickery  of  a  Yankee  conjurer  !  " 

There  would  seem  to  be  something  like  consternation 
mixed  with  all  this  wrath.  The  air  of  serious  hauteur  with 
which  Mr.  Harrison  affects  to  look  down  on  the  sordid  aspi- 
rants to  immortal  life,  as  if  the}"  were  haggling  for  a  miser- 
able two-and-sixpence,  would  be  comical  did  it  not  suggest 
an  eccentricit}^  prompting  an  emotion  of  compassion. 

Mr.  Harrison  has,  as  he  believes,  very  exalted  notions 
of  the  soul,  but  he  thinks  that  immortality,  in  the  vulgar 
sense,  would  detract  from  the  soul's  dignity  instead  of  en- 
hanciDg  it.  He  rebukes  materialism  for  "  exaggerating  the 
importance  of  the  physical  facts  and  ignoring  that  of  the 
spiritual ;  "  but  the  spiritual,  in  his  new  and  independent 
vocabular}",  simpl}'  means  our  posthumous  influence.  In 
his  estimation,  it  is  much  more  spiritual  to  exert  influence 
as  a  dead  man  than  as  a  living.     Since  our  posthumous  in- 


FACTS   MUST   RULE.  309 

fliience,  through  onr  innocent  errors  of  opmion,  or  our  well- 
intended  acts,  is  as  likel}^  to  be  bad  as  good,  the  comfort 
supplied  in  his  teachings  on  this  point  is  not  veiy  great  to 
the  ordinaiy  conception,  though  he  thinks  it  is  "  but  a  pes- 
simistic view  of  life "  which  would  contradict  him.  He 
tells  us  there  will  be  a  "  providential  control  over  all  human 
actions  b}^  the  great  Power  of  Humanity  !  "  As,  apart  from 
his  esthetic  misgivings,  his  great  objection  to  the  fact  of 
immortalit}^  is,  that  he  "  can  attach  no  meaning  to  a  human 
life  to  be  prolonged  without  a  human  frame  and  a  human 
world,"  —  the  reply  of  a  Spiritualist  would  be:  There 
is  both  a  frame  and  a  world  for  man  in  the  continued  life 
which  he  enters  upon  when  he  leaves  the  ph3'sical  frame 
and  this  world  of  the  external  senses. 

Among  the  active  iconoclasts  of  the  day  Mr.  Leslie  Ste- 
phen, of  England,  is  one  of  the  last  to  whom  Spiritualists 
should  address  a  word  of  discouragement.  In  pointing  out 
the  weak  places  in  current  religious  beliefs,  and  showing 
how  far  short  of  the  needs  of  the  modern  scientific  mind 
are  the  common  theological  teachings  in  regard  to  the  soul, 
he  is  unwittingl}'  clearing  the  wa}^  for  the  advent  of  a  psj^- 
chological  science  which  shall  accept  human  immortality, 
not  onh^  as  a  postulate  of  the  reason,  but  as  an  inference 
from  demonstrable  facts. 

He  is  ver}'  far  from  entertaining  any  such  view  of  the 
case  himself.  An  appeal  to  Spiritualism  disturbs  his  philo- 
sophical equanimit}^,  and  prompts  him,  as  we  have  seen  it 
does  Mr.  Harrison,  to  give  way  to  expressions  of  anger  and 
contempt,  not  weighty  with  conviction  to  judicial  truth- 
seekers.  He  remarks  of  Spiritualists,  that  "  they  really 
show  how  belief  in  another  life  may  be  twisted  into  a  most 
grovelling  form  of  materialism  ;  "  which  simpl}^  means  that 
Mr.  Stephen  dishkes  what  we  claim  to  be,  not  theories,  but 
facts  ;  facts  quite  irrespective  of  the  question  whether  the}^ 
may  strike  a  fastidious  person  as  "  grovelling"  or  exalted. 


310  THE    UNSEEN   WORLD   A    REALITY. 

In  the  next  life,  as  in  this,  it  may  depend  wholly  on  the 
character  of  the  individual  whether  he  "  grovels"  or  aspires. 

In  a  paper  in  a  late  number  of  the  Fortnightly  Review^ 
Mr,  Stephen  informs  us  that  "  the  so-called  belief  in  a  future 
life  —  whether  in  hell  or  in  heaven  —  has  alwaj^s  been  in 
reality-  a  dream,  and  not,  strictl}^  speaking,  a  belief  at  all." 
Eepudiating  as  he  does  our  facts,  he  may  consistent!}^  enter- 
tain this  theor}',  and  regard  it  as  a  clever  explanation  of 
all  religious  phenomena,  including  the  martj'r's  defiance  of 
death,  and  other  remarkable  incidents  in  human  history, 
significant  of  an  overmastering  faith  in  God  and  the  unseen 
world. 

That  every  man  is  the  measure  of  every  other  man^  in  re- 
gard to  the  developments  of  his  interior  or  abnormal  facul- 
ties, is  a  fallac}^'  into  which  the  shrewdest  thinkers  not  un- 
frequentl}'  fall  through  simple  ignorance  of  certain  super- 
sensual,  but  not  supernatural,  facts,  known  in  all  ages  of 
the  world  to  observers  under  whose  experience  they  have 
occurred.  The  argument  of  a  class  of  minds  of  which  Mr. 
Stephen  is  a  type,  is  :  "  /cannot  see  without  the  use  of  m^^ 
eyes  ;  why  should  another  man  be  able  to  do  so  ?  I  do  not 
fall  into  trances,  and  see  and  hear  unutterable  things  ;  how 
can  3'ou  expect  me  to  believe  that  one  Saul  of  Tarsus  was 
any  more  favored  than  I  am  in  this  respect?  If  Slade  or 
Watkins  can  get  independent  writing  from  some  unseen, 
intelligent  force,  by  holding  out  a  slate,  wh}'  should  not  I 
be  the  recipient  of  a  like  manifestation  ?  " 

In  sa3ing  that  the  belief  of  men  in  a  future  life  "has 
always  been  in  reality  a  dream,  and  not,  strictly  speaking, 
a  belief  at  all,"  Mr.  Stephen  shows  simply  that  his  pre- 
possessions blind  him  to  notorious  facts.  Pythagoras, 
Hesiod,  Pindar,  Socrates,  Plato,  Aristotle,  Plutarch,  and 
most  of  the  great  thinkers  of  antiquit}",  founded  their  be- 
lief in  the  immortality^  of  the  soul  on  actual  phenomena, 
objective  or  subjective,  as  proved  by  Spiritualism,  verified 


FACTS   MUST   RULE.  311 

by  obseryation  and  sanctioned  by  reason.  To  say  that 
these  men  did  not  believe^  but  merety  dreamed,  is  to  utter  a 
sottise,  utterty  destitute  of  truth. 

Melancthon  sa3^s :  "I  have  myself  seen  spirits,  and  I 
know  many  trustworth}'  persons  who  affirm  that  they  have 
not  only  seen  them,  but  carried  on  conversations  with 
them."  Luther  bears  testimony  equally  strong  to  the  ex- 
istence of  the  departed  in  spiritual  forms  ;  so  do  Calvin, 
Richard  Baxter,  Knox,  Oberlin,  and  hundreds  equal]}'  emi- 
nent. Does  Mr.  Stephen  suppose  that  the  thousands  of 
sincere  men  who  countenanced  the  witchcraft  persecutions 
had  really  no  "  belief"  in  the  existence  of  spirits,  — in  the 
certainty  of  a  future  life  ?  Does  he  suppose  that  men  like 
Glanvil,  Henry  More,  Baxter,  and  Wesley,  were  merelj^ 
pottering  over  their  foolish  "  dreams "  when  they  asserted 
their  solemn  convictions,  based  on  a  knowledge  of  phe- 
nomena, that  death  does  not  kill  a  man,  but  simplj^^  leaves 
him  a  spirit  in  a  spiritual  world  ?  There  must  be  some- 
thing lacking  in  the  sympathetic  capacities  of  one  who  can 
set  down  such  men  as  either  hj^pocrites  or  dupes. 

Mr.  Stephen  offers  this  explanation  for  the  belief  in  im- 
mortalit}'  among  uncivilized  tribes  : 

' '  The  infantile  intelhgence  is  tolerant  of  contradictions  ; 
it  is  not  surprised  on  discovering  that  a  body  lohich  toas 
covered  tvitJi  earth  and  burned  with  fire  is  again  appearing 
in  its  former  state ;  and  the  fact  that  death  ends  life  is  but 
slowly  forced  upon  it  by  experience.  If  my  dog  saw 
something  which  recalled  me  after  my  death,  he  would 
accept  the  vision  without  the  least  shock  of  surprise  ;  the 
childish  mind  certainly,  and,  we  may  presume,  the  savage 
mind,  is  in  the  same  stage." 

It  is  a  dual  body,  and  not  the  body  that  was  ' '  covered 
with  earth,"  that  the  "infantile  intelligence "  believes  in. 
Is  it  possible  that  Mr.  Stephen  did  not  know  this?  Mr. 
E.  B.  Tjdor,  who  in  his  "Primitive  Culture"  has  examined 
the  question  thoroughly  and  without  bias,  tells  us,  that  in 


312  THE   UNSEEN  WORLD   A    REALITY. 

reph'  to  the  question,  "Are  there  spirits?"  he  found  all 
nations,  even  those  in  the  lowest  state  of  culture,  answer- 
ing Yes.  And  as  if  to  show  how  directly  opposed  to  the 
truth  is  Mr.  Stephen's  wdld  assumption,  Tjdor  adds  the 
following  conclusive  testimon}^  (vol.  i.  pp.  384,  387)  : 

"  The  belief  in  spiritual  beings  appears  among  all  low 
races  with  whom  we  have  attained  to  thoroughly-  intimate 
acquaintance.  .  .  .  The  conception  of  a  personal  soul  or 
spirit  among  the  lower  races  may  be  defined  as  follows  :  It 
is  a  thin,  unsubstantial,  human  image,  in  its  nature  a  sort 
of  vapor,  film,  or  shadow  —  the  cause  of  life  and  thought  in 
the  individual  it  animates;  independentlj'  possessing  the 
personal  consciousness  and  volition  of  its  corporeal  owner, 
past  or  present ;  capable  of  leaving  the  bod}'  far  behind,  to 
flash  swiftly  from  place  to  place  ;  mostly  impalpable  and 
invisible,  yet  also  manifesting  ph3'sical  power,  and  espe- 
cially appearing  to  man  waking  or  asleep  as  a  phantasm 
separate  from  the  body  of  which  it  bears  the  likeness  ;  able 
to  enter  into,  possess,  and  act  in  the  bodies  of  other  men, 
of  animals,  and  even  of  things." 

Mr.  Stephen's  notion,  therefore,  on  which  he  bases  so 
much  of  his  abuse  of  Spiritualism  and  denial  of  immortal- 
it}^  is  simply  a  blunder  unbecoming  in  one  who  assumes  to 
give  scientific  instruction  on  the  subject  of  the  foundations 
of  human  belief  in  a  future  state,  and  who  would  ascribe  it 
all  to  dreaming. 

In  Mr.  Tylor's  account  of  the  nature  and  genesis  of  the 
behef  among  the  "  low  races,"  it  is  interesting  to  find  how 
accurately  their  notions  on  the  subject  of  the  spiritual  body 
correspond  with  those  got  from  the  well-established  facts 
of  Spiritualism.  We  are  surprised  that  so  subtle  a  thinker 
as  Mr.  Stephen  should  not  have  seen  at  once  that  the  stub- 
born realism  of  that  "infantile  intelligence"  of  which  he 
scornfully  speaks,  would  of  itself  have  saved  it  from  con- 
fonnding  the  body  "  covered  with  earth  and  burned  with 
fire  "  with  the  spiritual  body  assumed  by  the  departed  hu- 
man being  for  the  purpose  of  manifesting  itself  to  mortals 


FACTS   MUST  RULE.  313 

111  the  flesh.  It  is  just  because  the  "  infantile  intelligence  " 
of  the  savage  is  not  "tolerant  of  contradictions,"  that  he 
believes  death  has  not  ended  the  individuality  of  the  man 
who  can  manifest  himself  in  a  form  and  dress  similar  to 
those  by  which  he  was  known  in  the  earth-life. 

Mr.  Stephen's  notion  that  a  dog  would  not  feel  "  a  shock 
of  surprise  "  at  seeing  the  dead  return,  is  a  wholly  gratui- 
tous and  unscientific  assumption.  The  dog  that  had  lain 
stretched  for  days  beside  the  lifeless  body  of  his  master, 
and  had  marked  the  decay  of  the  once  familiar  features, 
would  in  all  probabilitj^  have  run  awa}',  howling  with  terror, 
if  that  master  should  suddenly  have  appeared  to  him  in 
another  but  similar  body,  resuming  the  vigorous,  life-like 
appearance,  the  absence  of  which  was  the  cause  of  the 
poor  brute's  lamentation.  The  student  of  psychological 
phenomena  among  the  lower  animals  will  recall  numerous 
facts  to  justify  this  conclusion.  Dogs  and  horses  have 
been  known  to  show  great  agitation  at  occurrences  which 
seemed  to  implj^  what  a  human  being  might  call  a  spirit 
manifestation. 

"There  is  not  even  a  fragment  or  shadow  of  ostensible 
reason,"  says  Mr.  Stephen,  "  for  confining  immortality  to 
roan  and  excluding  brutes."  This  is  a  too  confident  bit  of 
dogmatism ;  but  he  should  have  known  that  Spiritualists 
very  generally  do  not  exclude  the  brute  creation  from  im- 
mortalit3^  Space  must  be  cheap  in  a  universe  without 
bounds,  and  Omnipotence  is  a  great  word.  There  is  room 
enough  for  all.  Mr.  Stephen  should  not  have  been  silent 
on  the  fact  that  eminent  philosophers  like  Leibnitz,  emi- 
nent Christians  like  Bishop  Butler,  and  eminent  ph3^sicists 
like  Agassiz,  have  believed  in  the  immortalit}'  of  the  lower 
animals.  "The  common  opinion  which  would  consign  to 
an  eternal  death  all  organized  beings,  man  alone  excepted, 
would  impoverish  the  universe,"  says  Charles  Bonnet,  the 
great  Swiss  ph3'sicist ;  and  many  Spiritualists  agree  with 


314  THE   UNSEEN    WOELD    A    REALITY. 

him.  Na}',  the}'  go  as  far  as  Sir  J.  E.  Smith,  the  eminent 
Engiish  botanist,  who  said,  "  I  can  no  more  explain  the 
phj'siology  of  vegetables  than  of  animals  without  the  hy- 
pothesis of  a  living  principle  in  both."  If  there  is  an  illim- 
itable spirit- world,  and  if  life  is  a  blessing,  wh}'  should 
an3^thing  perish  utterly  in  its  spiritual  part  any  more  than 
in  its  ph3'sical? 

Plutarch  saj'S  :  ' '  The  corruption  or  death  of  an}'  creat- 
ure is  not  its  annihilation  or  reduction  into  a  mere  nothing, 
but  rather  a  sending  of  the  dissolved  being  into  an  invis- 
ible state."  To  the  inquir}^  whether  the  soul  is  immortal, 
Apollonius,  one  of  the  great  mediums  of  antiquity,  replied, 
"•  Yes,  immortal,  but  like  everything."  The  essential  life 
of  all  things  is  imperishable.  In  the  present  state  of  sci- 
entific discover}^  he  who  believes  only  in  the  existence  of 
what  he  can  see  and  weigh  is  not  so  much  skeptical  as 
credulous,  and  this  would  seem  to  be  the  predicament  of 
Mr.  Stephen  ;  for  the  fact  that  the  soul  parts  with  its  mor- 
tal body  seems  to  him  conclusive  that  it  parts  with  every 
possible  kind  of  organism  through  which  it  may  still  pre- 
serve its  individualit}' ;  and  yet  chemical  and  mechanical 
science  admits  that  an  electro-luminous  organism,  invisible 
to  the  external  vision,  is  among  the  possibilities. 

"  Still  less  can  an}'  argument,"  he  says,  "  be  given  for  a 
future  immortality  which  is  not  equally  valid  in  favor  of  the 
past."  What  he  would  seem  to  mean  here  is  that  j^ost- 
mortem  existence  implies  eternal  pre-existence,  —  a  view 
which  Plato  entertained,  which  many  modern  Spiritualists, 
including  nearly  all  those  in  France,  who  are  disciples  of 
Allan  Kardec,  adhere  to,  and  which  some  commentators 
attribute  to  Christ  himself.  The  attempt  to  use  the  hy- 
pothesis against  the  current  belief  iq  immortality  merely 
betrays  the  shifts  to  which  Mr.  Stephen  resorts  in  his  spe- 
cial pleading.  That  all  souls  pre-existed  potentially  in 
God  is  good  orthodox  teaching. 


FACTS   MUST    RULE.  315 

"Dream-land"  is  the  favorite  phrase  on  which  Mr. 
Stephen  rings  the  changes  to  behttle  the  behef  in  immor- 
taUty.  This  "  dream-land,"  he  tells  us,  "is  the  embodi- 
ment of  our  hopes  and  fears."  "  The  plastic  world  of  the 
imagination  yields  to  every  passionate  longing  that  stirs 
our  natures."  "The  whole  process  is  poetical  in  sub- 
stance."    "  Pure  emotion  knows  of  no  limits." 

That  he  sincerely  regards  this  as  a  final  solution  of  the 
whole  mystery  we  do  not  doubt ;  for  he  has  the  convenient 
facultj^  of  turning  a  deaf  ear  to  facts  which  threaten  to 
dislocate  his  nicel}^  adjusted  theorj-.  He  poses  himself  in 
an  attitude  of  supercilious  pit}'  towards  the  fast  multiplying 
host  of  witnesses  who  testify  to  certain  phenomena  justi- 
fying the  spiritual  Inpothesis.  Such  men  he  regards  either 
as  mendacious  or  under  an  hallucination. 

He  distrusts  the  authority  of  the  emotions  as  compared 
with  the  speculative  faculty  by  which  he  arrives  at  his  con- 
clusions. The  real  appeal,  he  tells  us,  of  those  who  believe 
in  immortalit}',  is  "  the  appeal  to  the  emotions,"  His  own 
severe  logic  we,  the  simple  ones,  would  supersede  "  Iw  a 
simple  appeal  to  emotion." 

Now  the  belief  in  immortalit}',  founded  on  the  thoughtful 
observation  of  actual  phenomena'  and  on  personal  expe- 
rience, is  no  more  "emotional"  than  Franklin's  belief  in 
the  electricity  he  drew  from  the  clouds  was  emotional. 
The  assertion  that  the  conviction  of  immortality  in  the 
mind  of  man,  whether  savage  or  civilized,  is  not  in  realit}' 
a  belief,  but  made  of  such  stuff  as  dreams  are,  shows  the 
audacity  of  inexperience  rather  than  the  sobriety  born  of 
knowledge.  We  have  given  Mr.  Tylor's  confutation  of  the 
statement.  Any  one  conversant  with  the  writings  of  the 
fathers  of  the  Christian  church,  especially  of  Origen,  Ter- 
tulliau,  and  Augustine,  will  bear  testimony  to  the  fact  that 
the  objective  phenomena,  indicating  the  agency  of  spirits, 
with  which  i\\Qy  were  personallj^  familiar,  seem  to  form  the 


316  THE   UNSEEN    WORLD    A    REALITY. 

A-ery  foundation  of  their  earnest  belief  in  immortalit3^ 
The  records  of  the  Catholic  church  show  how  largel}^  the 
belief  has  been  vivified  and  intensified  by  a  knowledge  of 
phenomena  to  which  the  church  herself  has  borne  witness, 
and  which  she  never  has  repudiated,  though  imposture  may 
have  been  often  mingled  with  genuine  marvels. 

The  emotions  maj'  be  mistaken  in  their  swift  conclusions, 
and  so  may  the  speculative  reason  err  in  its  careful  judg- 
ments. Infallibility-  is  predicated  of  One  alone.  But  the 
emotion  that  rebels  at  injustice,  or  flames  up  at  meanness, 
or  wakens  to  a  tender  delight  at  recognition  of  the  beauti- 
ful —  whether  in  external  nature  or  in  human  action  —  is  it 
not  as  likely  to  point  to  the  eternally  true  as  the  reason 
which  leads  Mr.  Stephen  into  the  blunders  to  which  I  have 
directed  attention?  He  speaks  of  the  "poetical  process" 
as  if  it  were  necessarily  at  variance  with  the  scientific  —  as 
if,  amid  all  that  is  sj'mbolic  and  metaphorical  in  poetr}^ 
the  grandest  truths  of  existence  were  not  often  intuitively 
uttered  by  the  uneducated  and  inexperienced  bard.  What 
has  given  Shakspeare  his  immense  reputation  if  not  tlie 
truths  for  which  he  finds  expressive  utterance,  the  touches 
of  nature  b}*  which  he  makes  the  whole  world  kin  ?  The 
higher  "poetical  process"  may  often  be  that  where  the 
poet  is  possessed  b}^  a  universal  truth,  and  made  to 
"  wreak  it  on  expression."  The  lower  may  be  that  where 
he  controls  instead  of  being  controlled,  and  loses  his  high 
inspiration.  Even  Shelle}',  as  I  have  clearly  shown,  while 
externally  an  atheist,  was  internally  a  "  demoniac  man," 
with  a  faith  in  immortality  intense  enough  to  be  the  equiv- 
alent of  knowledge. 

The  mistake  of  reasoners  like  Mr.  Stephen  is  in  weigh- 
ing in  the  scales  of  the  speculative  reason  alone  a  subject 
which  demands  the  co-operation  of  all  the  faculties  and  all 
the  energies,  latent  and  developed,  of  the  whole  man  for 
its  consideration.     To  rule  out  all  emotional  and  psychical 


FACTS    MUST    RULE.  817 

testimony,  and  say  to  the  unaided  Reason,  "  Now  you 
alone  shall  decide  this  question  of  immortality,"  (as  if 
observation  had  not  contradicted  reason  in  thousands  of 
great  historical  instances  !)  is  as  unwise  as  it  would  be 
while  sitting  in  a  railroad  car  not  yet  in  motion,  as  another 
train  moves  bj',  to  say  to  the  sense  of  sight,  "Now  you 
alone  shall  decide  whether  our  train  is  moving." 

Emotions  that  contradict  the  reason  often  reach  to  a 
higher  truth  than  Reason  ever  dreamed  of.  John  May- 
nard,  who  stood  at  the  helm  of  a  burning  steamboat  till  he 
could  run  it  ashore,  and  saved  a  hundred  lives  b}^  risking 
and  losing  his  own,  —  was  it  his  hesitating  reason,  or  his 
swift  emotional  nature,  that  impelled  him  ta  the  heroic 
deed  ?  Is  the  nobleness  of  such  a  self-sacrifice  any  the  less 
true  because  born  of  the  emotions  ? 

The  function  of  the  meditative  reason,  seizing  only  upon 
the  relations  of  things,  is  important,  and  Spiritualists,  who 
base  so  much  on  its  deductions,  should  be  the  last  to  dis- 
pute this  ;  but  there  is  a  reason  deeper  than  that  which 
even  argues  and  doubts ;  even  the  reason  which  feels  and 
decides  without  any  conscious  ratiocination  or  balancing 
of  arguments.  Therefore  is  it  fundamentall}'  true  that 
"Nearly  all  truth  is  temperamental  to  us,  or  given  in  the 
affections  and  intuitions,  and  discussion  and  inquir}^  do  but 
little  more  than  feed  temperament."  * 

As  men  used  formerly  to  build  up  their  mundane  S3'stems 
irrespective  of  the  facts  of  geolog}^  and  astronomy,  so 
would  pseudo-scientists  in  our  day  build  up  or  pull  down 
psj'chological  systems,  irrespective  of  the  facts  of  som- 
nambuhsm,  mesmerism,  and  modern  spiritualism.  Mr. 
Tylor,  as  if  anticipating  a  recent  extraordinary  disquisi- 
tion from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Frederic  Harrison,  trul}^  remarks 
that  "  there  has  arisen  a  psychology  which  no  longer  has 
anj'thing  to  do  with  soul ; "  and  3'et  the  definition  of  the 

*  Dr.  J.  J.  G.  Wilkinson, 


318  THE   UNSEEN    WORLD    A    REALITY. 

soul,  he  tells  us,  "  has  remaiued  from  the  first  that  of  an 
animating,  separable,  surviving  entity",  the  vehicle  of  indi- 
vidual existence."  If  belief  in  a  future  life  has  been  at 
an}'  time  "  a  dream,  and  not  strictly  speaking  a  belief,"  it 
is  because  subjective  speculations  have  been  substituted  for 
objective  facts.  Among  earty  Christians  the  conception  of 
a  soul-body  involved,  larva-like,  in  the  earth-body  —  a 
conception  simple,  obvious,  and  aboriginal  —  was  generally 
held  up  to  the  time  of  Gregory  of  N3^ssa  (331-394),  and 
of  Augustine  (354-430) . 

"It  is  manifest,"  says  Hallam,  "to  any  one  who  has 
read  the  correspondence  of  Descartes  (1640),  that  the  tenet 
of  the  soul's  immaterialitj",  instead  of  being  general,  as  we 
are  apt  to  presume,  was  b}^  no  means  in  accordance  with 
the  common  opinion  of  his  age."  And  Descartes,  let  it  be 
noted,  taught  that  there  are  no  valid  proofs  of  the  soiiVs 
immortality  except  those  founded  on  revelation.  In  full 
s^'mpathy  with  the  negative  part  of  this  notion,  the  modern 
Atheistic  and  Sadducean  school  would  repudiate  the  proofs 
which  Spiritualism  brings  of  supersensual  powers  in  man. 

It  is  not  to  be  marvelled  at  that  these  philosophers 
should  be  so  extreme  in  their  denunciations.  Just  as  a 
Sadducean  science  seemed  to  be  having  things  its  own 
wa}',  —  narrowing  down  the  notion  of  a  substantial  soul  till, 
small  b}^  degrees  and  beautifully  less,  it  was  lost  in  outright 
unbehef, —  up  starts  this  portentous,  ill-favored,  modern 
Spiritualism,  with  its  grotesque,  unaccountable  phenomena, 
and  threatens  to  undo  the  work  that  the  Biichners  and  the 
Ilaeckels,  the  Stephens,  Frederic  Harrisons,  and  Cliffords 
have  been  so  busilj^  engaged  in.  Is  it  a  vronder  that  they 
lose  their  temper  ? 

Mr.  Stephen  stigmatizes  as  "mere  greediness  for  life" 
the  belief  of  some  minds  in  immortality^  Just  before  this, 
with  a  slight  inconsistency,  he  told  us  there  is  no  belief  at 
all,  "  only  a  dream."     But  now  "  it  may  mean  the  intense 


FACTS    MUST   RULE.  319 

dislike  of  a  selfish  nature  to  part  from  all  chance  of  en- 
joyment." '^It  means  so  strong  a  regard  for  one's  own 
wretched  little  individualit}'  that  the  universe  seems  worth- 
less unless  it  is  preserved." 

And  ma}^  not  conscious  mind  logically  and  rightfulty 
regard  the  whole  material  universe  as  worthless  in  compar- 
ison with  itself?  What  is  a  universe  of  mere  dust,  and 
fire,  and  gas,  compared  with  "the  wretched  little  individ- 
ualit}^ "  of  a  Shakspeare  or  a  Newton  ?  The  mind  that  can 
create  the  beautiful,  or  measure  suns  and  S3'stems  and  their 
movements,  is  it  not  something  grander  than  the  suns  and 
sj'stems  themselves,  if  these  are  to  be  dissociated,  as  they 
are  in  the  philosophy  of  Mr.  Stephen,  from  all  reference  to 
a  Divine  Orderer? 

If,  in  using  the  phrase  "  greediness  for  life,"  Mr.  Stephen 
means  anything,  he  means  to  stigmatize  by  a  dishonoring 
word  that  intense  longing  for  a  better  and  nobler  state  of 
existence,  which  many  of  the  most  exalted  minds,  of  which 
we  have  any  record,  have  experienced.  That  this  longing 
ma}'  sometimes  be  felt  by  a  "  selfish  nature"  is  not  denied, 
and  so  maj^  the  apathy  or  the  dislike  that  rests  in  indifi'er- 
ence,  or  craves  annihilation,  be  either  a  selfish  prompting 
or  a  morbid  idios3'ncras3^  But  an  appreciation  of  the  pos- 
sibilities of  life  in  an  inexhaustible  universe,  and  an  intense 
desire  to  live  and  to  love  and  to  learn,  in  view  of  all  that 
there  is  to  live  for  and  to  love  and  to  learn,  may  be  a  sen- 
timent of  all  the  most  grateful  to  the  Giver  of  life,  sup- 
posing that  there  is  an  intelligent  Giver.  If  it  be  selfish- 
ness, it  is  a  selfishness  godlike,  aspiring,  and  communicative 
as  the  sun  —  a  selfishness  which  all  loving  souls  would  com- 
mend as  higher  and  better  than  the  absence  of  it. 

Mr.  Stephen  cannot  well  ignore  the  nobility  of  that  de- 
sire for  immortality  inspired  by  the  pure  affections.  He 
condescends  to  refer  to  it  with  an  air  of  patronizing  sym- 
pathy.    He  says  of  that  "plastic  world  of  the  imagina- 


820  THE    UNSEEN   WORLD    A    REALITY. 

tion,"  by  which  he  characterizes  the  future  life,  "A  world 
thus  framed  ma}',  at  times,  represent  the  strength  of  love. 
We  cannot  and  we  will  not  believe  in  the  loss  of  those 
whose  lives  seemed  to  be  part  of  our  essence.  A  belief 
caused  b}-  (I  cannot  sa}'  based  upon)  this  passionate 
3'earning  is  so  pathetic,  and  even  sacred,  that  the  unbe- 
liever ma}'  w^ell  shrink  from  breathing  his  doubts  in  its 
presence." 

And  then  our  compassionate  "unbeliever"  wipes  hia 
ej'es,  and  goes  on  to  say  what  he  can  to  persuade  the 
world  that  there  is  no  future  life,  that  it  is  all  a  dream- 
land, and  that  the  saints,  seers,  and  devout  thinkers  of  the 
ages  have  been' no  better  than  idle  and  imbecile  visionaries, 
imagining  that  the}'  believed  when  they  were  only  dream- 
ing. He  entirely  ignores  the  vital,  momentous  fact,  that 
the  belief  of  saints  and  sages  may  have  culminated  in  actual 
knowledge  through  their  acquaintance  with  our  phenomena. 

The  mind  so  circumscribed  in  the  limitations  of  a  crass, 
dead  materialism  that  it  cannot  even  believe  that  other  men 
really  ever  believed  in  immortality,  is  rather  a  hopeless 
subject  for  argument  or  for  fact.  I  have  no  expectation  of 
softening  the  wrath  which  Mr.  Stephen  has  expressed 
towards  Spiritualism,  but  I  trust  that  befjre  venturing  to 
discourse  again  upon  the  genesis  of  the  belief  in  immortal- 
ity, he  will  look  a  little  into  the  facts,  and  explain  them  if 
he  can.  His  assertion  that  there  is  no  element  in  the  be- 
lief but  dreams  and  emotions,  is  exploded  by  a  crushing 
weight  of  evidence  to  the  contrary. 

From  actual  phenomena  known  to  savages  as  well  as  to 
civilized  men,  issues  the  first  serious  belief  in  immortality. 
As  far  back  as  tradition  can  go  we  find  the  belief,  and  we 
find  indications  of  the  origin  of  the  belief.  All  history,  all 
mythology,  all  literature,  all  medical  science,  contribute 
concurrent  evidence  to  the  establishment  of  this  fact.  The 
studious  Spiritualist  finds  the  phenomena  corroborated  and 


FACTS   MUST   RULE.  321 

explained  by  the  occurrences  of  our  own  daj".  The  He- 
brew and  Christian  Scriptures  are  a  rich  repository  of  these 
facts,  man}^  of  which  have  no  significance  without  the  ke}^ 
that  an  intelHgent  Spiritualism  supplies.  Their  unequivocal 
resemblance  to  those  of  the  present  day  shows  that  they  all 
belong  to  the  same  group. 

Shallow  and  superficial  investigators  would  relegate  all 
spiritual  phenomena  to  "dream-land,"  or  treat  them  as 
explicable  by  prepossession,  hallucination,  hj'pnotism,  or 
some  kind  of  imposture.  But  such  explanations  no  longer 
carry  weight.  Careful  observers  are  beginning  to  multiply, 
and  they  demand  a  solution  that  shall  not  wholly  ignore  the 
Irrepressible  facts.  When  many  thousands  of  intelligent 
contemporaries  can  testify  to  the  reality  of  direct  writing  in 
broad  daylight,  under  conditions  in  which  there  is  nothing 
at  variance  with  the  most  complete  scientific  satisfaction, 
the  stupendous  phenomenon  is  not  to  be  got  rid  of  bj^  a 
"pooh-pooh,"  or  b}'  any  oracular  talk  of  "dream-land" 
and  the  fallibilit}^  of  the  "  emotions." 

The  time  has  come  when  men  who  claim  to  be  scientific 
must  look  such  facts  squarely  in  the  face.  And  the  time 
has  also  come  when  such  speculations  as  those  of  Mr. 
Stephen  in  regard  to  the  question  of  the  origin  of  the  be- 
lief in  immortality^,  will  be  of  little  value  unaccompanied 
by  an  admission  and  explanation  of  the  great  phenomena 
of  Spiritualism.  These  have  been  placed  bej^ond  the 
range  of  the  sharpest  sarcasm,  the  most  elaborate  antago- 
nism of  the  clever  writers  and  amateur  philosophers ;  and 
the  best  plan  now  for  such  opponents  is  to  frankly  admit 
them,  and  then  tr}',  like  Mr.  Stuart-Glennie,  to  show  that 
they  have  no  spiritual  significance.  Perhaps  they  maj^  be 
more  successful  than  he  has  been  in  the  attempt. 

21 


822        THE  WILL  AND  THE  INTELLECT. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

THE     SENTIMENT     OF     IMMORTALITY    NOT     UNIVERSAL. MISS 

MARTINEAU. WM.  HUMBOLDT. BRADLAUGH. STRAUSS. 

FELIX   ADLER. EMERSON. BAXTER. R.     G.    INGER- 

SOLL. DEMONIAC    MEN. W.    K.    CLIFFORD. THE    EMO- 
TIONS   VERSUS    THE    INTELLECT. 

If  we  may  credit  human  testimony,  the  desire  for  a  con- 
tinuation of  hfe  after  the  dissolution  of  the  earthly  bodj^  is 
very  different  in  different  minds.  To  some,  and  probably 
to  the  large  majoritj^,  the  idea  of  utter  extinction  is  repul- 
sive. To  others,  and  among  them  are  persons  of  high 
culture  and  a  pure  morality,  the  desire  seems  to  be  feeble 
or  fluctuating. 

Acquiescence  in  a  false  psycholog}',  with  the  adoption  of 
the  Cartesian  notion,  extinguishing  the  old  belief  in  a  spir- 
itual organism,  has  been  influential,  not  only  in  bringing 
about  the  prevalent  skepticism  in  regard  to  immortality, 
but  in  engendering  the  indifference  which  is  sometimes  felt. 
That  this  often  springs  from  mere  temperament  is  also  true. 
But  erroneous  conceptions  in  regard  to  man's  psychical 
nature  must  unquestionably  lead  to  notions  which  have  their 
effect  in  impairing  the  natural  desire  for  life's  continuance. 

I  was  well  acquainted  with  the  late  Harriet  Martineau 
when  she  was  residing  in  Washington  in  the  winter  of  1834. 
She  was  then,  if  we  may  judge  from  her  writings,  a  Unita- 
rian. Subsequently  she  lapsed  into  atheism ;  but  this  seems 
to  have  been  rather  sentimental  or  temperamental  than 
rational.     "How  absurd  and  shocking  it  is,"  she  writes  in 


THE    SENTIMENT    OF    IxMMORTALITY.  823 

one  of  her  letters,  "  to  be  talking  everj^  daj^  about  our  own 
passing  moods  and  paltr\'  interests  to  a  supposed  author 
and  guide  of  the  universe."  But  if  that  author  is  at  the 
same  time  believed  to  be  the  source  of  our  own  life  and 
nature,  where  is  the  logical  absurdit}' ?  Here,  instead  of  a 
reason  or  an  argument,  she  simplj^  expresses  the  state  of 
her  own  feelings,  or  her  own  unreasoned  conclusions,  as  if 
those  were  authoritative  in  the  case. 

But  the  judgment  of  one  without  an  ear  for  music  in  re- 
gard to  the  productions  of  Mozart  or  Beethoven  is  about  as 
valuable  as  Miss  Martineau's  opinion  on  a  question  involv- 
ing the  exercise  of  the  devotional,  or  even  the  poetical 
faculty.  She  could  believe  in  clalrvo^-ance  —  in  the  power 
of  a  mortal  in  the  flesh  to  read  the  thoughts  of  another 
person  at  a  distance  ;  but  the  conception  of  a  clairvoj-ant, 
omniscient  God  was  to  her  mind  "so  irreverent"  as  to 
make  her  "  blush,  so  misleading  "  as  to  make  her  "  mourn." 

I  fear  there  was  something  morbid  in  that  "blush"  — 
something  that  confounded  moral  or  spiritual  nudity  with 
physical.  To  the  philosophic  mind  meditation  on  the  proofs 
of  a  clairvoyant  faculty  in  finite  man  renders  more  easy  the 
conception  of  an  infinitely  clairvoyant  intelligence.  To 
Miss  Martineau  it  was  suggestive  of  no  grand  possibility, 
not  even  of  a  supersensual  faculty  in  her  own  constitution, 
pointing  to  uses  beyond  the  tomb.  The  obvious  signifi- 
cance in  the  great  facts  adverse  to  her  Sadducean  theory 
she  either  blindly  ignored  or  set  aside  as  cancelled  by  her 
own  individual  feelings  on  the  subject.  She  had  passion 
and  earnestness  ;  she  could  hate  better  than  she  could  love  ; 
but  she  had  no  grand  enthusiasm.  From  music  she  was 
excluded  by  her  deafness.  In  the  poetical  facultj^,  so  nearlj^ 
allied  to  the  devotional,  she  was  deficient.  Not  one  of  her 
attempts  at  versification  is  now  remembered  by  the  many. 
Of  philosophy  she  knew  Httle  ;  plainly  her  gifts  did  not  lie 
in  that  direction.     Yet  with  all  these  defects  and  perver- 


324  THE   WILL   AND   THE   INTELLECT. 

sions,  with  an  utter  absence  of  that  insight  which  pene- 
trates beneath  the  surface  of  things  to  the  kitent  beaut}-  or 
significance,  there  were  few  subjects  in  regard  to  which  she 
did  not  have  full  confidence  that  Harriet  Martineau  could 
speedily  qualify  herself  to  become  a  teacher.  In  this  self- 
confidence  lay  the  secret  of  much  of  her  power  and  suc- 
cess. She  was  a  readj^,  industrious  writer,  commanding  a 
style  clear,  animated,  and  incisive ;  but  as  an  original 
thinker  she  has  left  no  memorable  work. 

TTilliam  Humboldt,  brother  of  Alexander,  offers  another 
instance  of  one  in  whom  the  desire  for  immortalitj-  seems 
to  have  lacked  the  force  of  a  motive.  "I  must  avow  it 
frankly,"  he  says,  "  that,  right  or  wrong,  I  do  not  hold  much 
to  the  hope  of  another  life.  I  could  not  make  for  mj'self 
another  existence  out  of  my  human  ideas,  and  yet  it  is  im- 
possible for  me  to  make  it  out  of  any  other.  I  regard  death 
with  absolute  calmness,  but  without  desire  or  enthusiasm." 
If  William  Humboldt  could  have  acquainted  himself  with 
our  phenomena,  he  would  have  learned,  perhaps,  that  his 
"  human  ideas"  in  regard  to  a  future  life  were  more  in  har- 
mon}'  with  the  actual  facts  than  he  had  ever  dared  to  hope. 

Charles  Bradlaugh,  the  English  secular  leader  and  mem- 
ber of  Parliament,  seems  to  have  been  made  somewhat  un- 
easy by  the  spread  of  Spiritualism.  He  tells  us  he  has  cast 
oft'  all  belief  in  a  future  life,  and  that  he  feels  remarkably 
well  after  it.  He  is  above  the  miserable  weakness  of  ever 
wishing  to  see  again  the  parents,  children,  brothers,  sisters, 
or  friends,  who  he  believes  have  passed  on  to  blank  annihi- 
lation. Some  years  ago  there  was  a  public  discussion  on 
the  subject  of  a  future  life  between  him  and  James  Burns, 
the  well-known  publisher  of  Spiritual  books  and  periodicals. 
It  ended,  like  all  such  discussions,  in  an  acknowledgment 
of  defeat  by  neither  part3\ 

But  one  fact  was  made  evident.  The  onh'  wa}'  in  which 
Bradlaugh  could  make  a  show  of  maintaining  .his  Sudducean 


THE   SENTIMENT    OF    IMMORTALITY.  325 

doctrine  was  b}'  ignoriDg  our  facts.  Tell  him  of  clairvoj'- 
ance,  direct  writing,  or  spirit-hands,  and  all  he  could  say  in 
reply  was,  Not  proven.  He  claimed  to  pursue  the  deduc- 
tive, a  2-)riori  method  (like  Dr.  Beard),  and  his  facile  logic 
lay  in  discrediting  well-known  phenomena.  Mr.  Burns  pur- 
sued the  inductiA^e  method,  presenting  an  impregnable  array 
of  facts.  Mr.  Bradlaugh  opposed  to  these  facts  his  own 
"true  inwardness,"  his  deductive  reasoning,  and  his  purely 
individual  convictions.  His  excuse  for  this  course  was 
that  it  was  not  his  business  to  explain  certain  psychological 
phenomena,  or  to  bring  forward  an}^  scientific  facts  in  op- 
position. "  My  reason  against  3'our  facts  !  "  seemed  to  be 
the  sum  and  substance  of  his  arguments. 

Now  it  plainly  luas  Mr.  Bradlaugh's  business  to  show, 
either  that  psychological  phenomena  do  not  occur,  or  that 
there  are  no  grounds  for  the  induction  that  they  are  solved 
b}'  the  spiritual  theor}'.  This  he  failed  to  do,  and  this  he 
did  not  even  attempt  to  do  ;  and  it  was  well  remarked  that 
there  was  more  logic  in  the  lucid  presentation  of  facts  by 
Mr.  Burns  than  in  all  the  artificial  mechanism  of  abstruse 
propositions  hy  which  Mr.  Bradlaugh  assumed  to  evade  the 
force  of  those  facts. 

He  exhibits  the  bigotry  of  the  extreme  Churchman  in  the 
following  remark,  from  which  it  would  seem  that  there  is 
an  orthodox}'  in  secularism  as  well  as  in  sectarian  religion  : 

"Although  at  present  it  ma}'  be  perfectlj'  true  that  all  men 
who  are  secularists  are  not  3'et  atheists,  I  put  it  to  you  as 
IDcrfectly  true  that  in  m}'  opinion  the  logical  consequence 
of  secularism  must  be,  that  the  man  gets  to  atheism  if  he  has 
brains  enough  to  comprehend.  .  .  .  The  whole  basis  of  our 
secular  cause  is  in  direct  ignoring  and  denial  of  the  possi- 
bilit}^  of  an}'  such  state  of  existence  "  {i.  e.  of  any  future 
state) . 

So  it  would  seem  that  in  order  to  satisfy  the  orthodoxy 
of  this  secular  Pope,  a  man  must  "ignore  and  deny  the 


826        THE  WILL  AND  THE  INTELLECT. 

veiy  possibilit}'  of  a  future  state  of  existence."  "  There  is 
no  God  —  and  Chatles  Bradlaugh  is  his  prophet!"  Such 
would  seem  to  be  the  temper  of  his  fulminations  against 
those  ' '  brainless  "  persons  entertaining  the  theistic  belief, 
and  against  the  possibility  of  an  hereafter  for  man. 

The  wonder  is,  if  he  is  sincere,  that  he  should  give  him- 
self the  slightest  concern  as  to  what  other  persons  may 
think  in  regard  to  Spiritualism,  Republicanism,  or  an3'thing 
else.  If  thought  springs  from  a  mere  accidental  disposition 
of  certain  molecules  of  matter,  how  can  there  be  any  abso- 
lute standard  of  truth?  If  people  will  not  think  as  he 
wants  them  to,  why  not  blame  the  molecules,  and  there  let 
the  matter  rest?  If  matter  and  chance  are  kings,  what 
logic  is  there  in  his  taking  the  trouble  he  does  ? 

Belief  in  spirit,  in  God,  or  in  gods,  comes  to  the  race, 
civilized  or  uncivilized,  through  evidences  of  certain  super- 
sensual  phenomena,  as  manifested  by  men  in  the  flesh  and 
b}^  spirits  out  of  the  flesh.  And  this  belief  is  what  Mr. 
Bradlaugh  is  trying  to  extirpate.  He  does  not  experience 
such  things.  .  Why  should  he  believe  that  anj-  one  else  ever 
did  ?  But  he  is  no  more  an  infallible  representative  of  the 
human  race  than  the  horse  who  used  to  eat  beefsteaks 
was  a  representative  of  the  equine  race.  The  genus  horse 
is  graminivorous  notwithstanding.  Bradlaugh's  mistake  is 
in  making  his  own  idiosyncrasies  and  his  own  limited  facul- 
ties the  measure  of  the  universe.  He  knows  nothing  about 
spirits,  therefore  there  can  be  no  spirit- world,  and  seership 
is  all  a  delusion !  lie  has  no  longing  for  immortalit}', 
therefore  nobody  else  ought  to  have  ! 

There  was  not  long  ago  an  illiterate  mental  calculator  in 
Scotland  who  was  asked  how  man}^  letters  there  would  be 
in  a  year's  file  of  a  dail^^  newspaper  of  eight  pages,  each 
page  having  seven  columns,  each  column  one  hundred  and 
ninety  lines,  and  each  line  thirty-two  letters.  The  true  an- 
swer, 139,873,440,  was  given  in  ten  seconds.    Shall  we  deny 


THE   SENTIMENT   OF   IMMORTALITY.  327 

the  possibility  of  such  a  faculty  because  it  may  be  unde- 
veloped in  our  own  mental  structure  ? 

In  his  last  work,  "  The  Old  Faith  and  the  New,"  David 
F.  Strauss  tells  us  that  the  prospect  of  "'  the  eternal  per- 
sistence of  life"  would  fill  him  "with  dismay."  But  in 
saying  this  he  ignores  facts  and  analogies  which  might  per- 
haps make  the  prospect  less  intolerable.  He  ignores  the 
possible  existence  of  psj^chical  powers  in  our  own  constitu- 
tion:, which  ma}'  proportion  our  da}'  to  our  strength,  and 
adapt  our  future  horizons  to  our  future  capacities  and  needs. 
Above  all,  he  sets  aside  the  possibility  of  the  superintend- 
ence of  an  infinitely  beneficent  Power,  who  has  not  so  made 
us  that  life,  in  our  healthy  moods  and  rightly  used,  would 
ever  be  other  than  a  blessing. 

If  we  disregard  all  those  facts  of  discrete  mental  states 
and  other  phenomena,  verified  in  the  testimonj'  I  have  pre- 
sented, we  ma}'  logicall}^  fall  into  that  state  of  "dismay" 
bj^  which  Strauss  was  afi'ected.  Spiritualism  would  have 
showed  him  how  like  the  cry  of  a  child  in  the  dark  were 
his  apprehensions.  It  would  have  forced  him  to  realize  that 
the  nature  of  man  is  complex ;  that  there  is  an  outward 
and  an  inward  consciousness,  distinct  though  not  inherently 
separate,  and  that  the  inward  ma}^  smile  at  the  "dismay" 
felt  b}'  the  outward  at  a  prospect  to  which  the  faculties  of 
the  superior  organism  may  stretch  forward  with  a  joyful  at- 
traction. 

Mr.  Felix  Adler,  the  well-known  liberal  preacher,  objects 
to  what  he  calls  the  "morbid  craving  for  immortality;" 
and  even  R.  W.  Emerson  frowns  upon  what  he  stigmatizes 
as  this  "  lust "  after  a  Imowledge  of  our  immortalit}-.  Mr. 
Adler  would  direct  the  attention  of  men  to  ' '  the  more  ur- 
gent needs  of  the  present,  of  the  here.'"  Surel}'  if  an3'thing 
can  do  that  it  must  be  Spiritualism,  since  it  regards  the 
future  as  but  a  continuation  of  present  individual  life,  col- 
ored  and  shaped  by  the  character  and  the  affections,  de- 


328  THE   WILL   AND   THE  INTELLECT. 

veloped  or  formed  in  the  "  here,''     The  subject  has  now  be- 
come a  branch  of  the  ph3^siology  of  the  species. 

It  is  not  the  too  much  but  the  too  little  of  a  genuine  aspi- 
ration (call  it  craving  if  3'ou  will)  to  immortality  that  makes 
human  life  so  often  to  our  e3'es  a  failure.  Not  the  craving 
for  more  life,  but  the  lack  of  appreciation  of  life  itself,  its 
vast  significance,  its  splendid  opportunities,  and  the  over- 
whelming proofs  which  we  now  have  of  its  continuance  into 
another  stage  of  being,  with  our  individualit}^  unimpaired, 
our  affections  purified  and  enlarged,  —  this  is  the  real  defect 
to  be  deplored. 

To  maintain  that  a  new  era  of  moral  earnestness  could 
be  brought  about  without  the  great  factor  of  a  trust  in  im- 
mortalit}',  is  an  assumption  wholl}"  at  variance  with  the 
facts  of  human  nature,  taken,  not  in  their  exceptional 
aspects,  but  in  the  general  intuitions  and  experiences  of 
the  race. 

A  "rationalistic  religion"  with  the  element  of  immor- 
tality left  out  is  a  delusion.  Mr.  Adler  would  have  us 
adorn  life  with  all  nobleness,  all  deep  affection,  and  all 
strenuous  effort,  and  at  the  same  time  to  be  so  indifferent 
to  life  per  se,  that  we  shall  cherish  no  intense  wish  for  its 
continuance  beyond  the  charnel-house  ;  to  love  children, 
parents,  friends,  with  profound  affection,  and  yet  to  be 
quite  indifferent  to  the  question  whether  or  no,  after  the 
agony  of  parting  on  this  shore  of  time,  we  are  likely  to  see 
them  in  another  and  a  better  world. 

His  assertion  that  ''  the  common  opinion  about  souls  orig- 
inated in  an  erroneous  explanation  of  the  phenomena  of 
dreams,"  is  a  repetition  of  one  of  Strauss's  arguments,  and 
is  an  utter  fallac}'  in  the  sense  in  which  it  is  presented. 
The  history  of  Spiritualism  shows  that  the  belief  in  immor- 
talit}^  was  inspired  bj'  actual  objective  phenomena,  and  by 
tiie  medial  powers  of  the  soul  itself,  prompted  often,  per- 
haps, hy  the  influence  of  independent  spirits. 


THE   SENTIMENT   OF   IMMORTALITY.  329 

Utterly  fallacious,  too,  is  the  notion  that  an  assured 
knowledge  of  a  future  life,  such  as  many  Spiritualists  now 
have,  w^ould  be  inconsistent  with  the  activities  of  the  present. 
All  history  shows  that  the  most  active  men  in  their  day  and 
generation  haA^e  been  men  who  had  wdiat  Goethe  calls  the 
"  demoniac  "  nature  ;  men  interiorl^^  aware  of  their  spiritual 
endowments,  and  often  wiser  than  they  knew  in  regard  to 
a  future  life  ;  such  men  as  Pythagoras,  Socrates,  Aristotle, 
Cicero,  Plutarch,  Mahomet,  Shakspeare,  Richard  Baxter, 
Martin  Luther,  Henrj^  More,  John  Wesley,  Melancthon, 
Swedenborg,  Robert  Burns,  Benjamin  Franklin,  George 
Washington,  Thomas  Paine,  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  Louis 
Napoleon,  Thiers,  Guizot,  Mazzini,  Garibaldi,  Bismarck, 
&c.  JVIost  of  these  men  knew  our  phenomena  and  were 
avowed  Spiritualists  in  the  modern  sense  ;  and  all  believed 
in  the  soul's  immortality.  Look  at  the  amount  of  activity 
compressed  into  the  earth-lives  of  these  men.  Mr.  Adler 
must  reverse  his  theory  if  he  would  have  it  in  keeping  with 
notorious  facts. 

The  sentiment  of  immortalit}^,  as  it  relates  to  the  pure 
affections,  the  love  of  kindred  and  friends,  is  a  considera- 
tion which  must  not  be  left  out  of  the  account,  though  I 
have  shown  that  the  positive  belief  in  immortality  springs 
less  from  the  emotional  side  of  our  nature  than  from  the 
rational,  when  fortified  by  the  actual  phenomena  which  have 
made  the  belief  so  universal.  "  It  is  to  that  sense  of  im- 
mortality with  which  the  affections  inspire  us,"  says  Henry 
Thomas  Buckle,  "  that  I  would  appeal  for  the  best  proof 
of  a  future  life."  "  It  must  be  true  because  it  is  a  necessity 
of  the  affections,"  said  Hortense  Bonaparte.  The  normal 
and  natural  feeling  is  well  expressed  by  Richard  Baxter 
(1615-1691),  one  of  the  most  estimable  of  Enghsh  theo- 
logians.    He  sa3"s  : 

'•  I  must  confess,  as  the  experience  of  my  own  soul,  that 
the  expectation  of  loving  my  friends  in  heaven  principally 


330  THE    WILL    AND    THE    I^'TELLECT. 

kindles  1113^  love  to  them  on  earth.  If  I  thought  I  should 
never  know  them  and  consequently  never  love  them  after 
this  life  is  ended,  I  should  in  reason  number  them  with 
temporal  things,  and  love  them  as  such.  But  I  now  delight 
to  converse  with  my  friends,  in  a  firm  persuasion  that  I 
shall  converse  with  them  forever ;  and  I  take  comfort  in 
those  that  are  dead  or  absent,  as  believing  I  shall  shortly 
meet  them  in  heaven,  and  love  them  with  a  heavenly  love 
that  shall  there  be  perfected." 

Few  men  probably  have  uttered  more  sarcasms  in  ridicule 
of  the  Bible  and  the  grounds  for  a  belief  in  immortality 
than  Col.  Eobert  G.  Ingersoll,  of  Illinois,  a  man  of  great 
natural  endowments  and  a  ready  eloquence.  But  at  the 
funeral  of  his  brother,  E.  C.  Ingersoll,  in  Washington, 
D.  C,  June  2d,  1879,  this  accomplished  scoffer,  giving  way 
to  the  emotional  element  in  his  nature,  changed  his  tone 
somew^hat  while  in  the  face  of  death,  and  said  : 

"  Life  is  a  narrow  vale  between  the  cold  and  barren  peaks 
of  two  eternities  ;  we  strive  in  vain  to  look  bej'ond  the 
heights  ;  we  cr}^  aloud,  and  the  only  answer  is  the  echo  of 
our  wailing  cr}' ;  from  the  voiceless  lips  of  the  unreplying 
dead  there  comes  no  word,  hut  in  the  night  of  death  hope  sees 
a  star^  and  listening  love  can  hear  the  rustle  of  a  iving.  lie 
wdio  sleeps  here,  when  dying,  mistaking  the  approach  of 
death  for  the  return  of  health,  whispered  with  his  latest 
breath,  '  I  am  better  now.'  Let  us  belicA^e,  in  spite  of 
ioubts  and  dogmas,  and  tears  and  fears,  that  these  dear 
words  are  true  of  all  the  countless  dead." 

''  Stars  and  rustling  wings  1  "  Truly  it  would  seem  that 
the  emotional  nature  is  more  than  a  match  for  the  intel- 
lectual, when  some  dread  reality  summons  it  to  the  rescue. 
It  is  when  sorrow  makes  it  a  necessit}^  of  the  heart  that  the 
certainty  of  our  own  immortality  and  that  of  our  beloved 
flashes  through  the  clouds  of  doubt  and  anguish  to  the  heart 
in  which  love  has  really  yet  a  place. 

To  the  man  at  once  strong  in  the  affections,  and  knowing 
our  spiritual  facts,  the    "  narrow  vale  between  the  cold  and 


THE    SENTIMENT    OF    IMMORTALITY.  c31 

barren  peaks  of  two  eternities,"  is  the  vestibule  to  an  am- 
pler life ;  and  death,  instead  of  coming  in  his  old  skeleton 
form  with  a  dait  in  his  hand,  comes  as  a  gracious  angel, 
beckoning  us  to  a  fairer  shore,  and  to  a  reunion  with  the 
near  and  dear  already  there. 

Professor  W.  K.  Chfford,  an  English  mathematician  of 
rare  promise,  died  in  1879,  at  the  age  of  thirtj'-four.  Up 
to  the  time  of  his  taking  his  college  degree  he  held  "  ex- 
treme High-Church  notions."  A  rebound  from  one  extreme 
to  its  opposite  is  apt  to  occur  ;  and  so  it  is  not  surprising 
that  he  became  ' '  an  extreme  and  uncompromising  rational- 
ist," and  made  ' '  many  enemies  by  the  relentless  severity 
of  his  writing  on  topics  that  are  convention alh'  handled  with 
dehcacy  and  caution."  He  drew  his  little  diagram  of  the 
whole  origin  and  scheme  of  the  universe  as  dexterously  as 
he  would  a  geometrical  figure  on  his  blackboard.  A  little 
mind-stuff  here  and  a  little  matter-stuff  there,  and  the  whole 
puzzle  was  solved.  At  least  so  thought  Mr.  Clifford  at  aii 
age  when  most  of  our  great  men  have  just  begun  to  realize 
faintly  the  depths  of  their  own  ignorance.  One  single  proof 
of  direct  writing  annihilates  his  whole  Sadducean  system. 

We  are  told  that  among  his  ' '  advanced  "  views  was  that 
of  "  the  finality  of  conscious  existence  in  this  life  ;  "  that  he 
"  looked  for  no  future,  but  saw  and  knew  the  inutility  of 
wasting  one's  thoughts  in  vain  expectations."  His  dogma- 
tism, based  on  undemonstrated  h^^potheses,  was  singularly 
at  variance  with  his  mathematical  training.  Freed  from  his 
professional  limitations,  his  imagination,  unchecked  bj^  sci- 
entific certainties,  seemed  to  revel  in  the  wildest  flights  of 
mere  speculation. 

We  are  told  by  Mr.  Pollock,  his  biographer,  that  "  as 
never  man  loved  life  more,  so  never  man  feared  death  less  ; " 
to  which  it  is  added  :  ^'  he  fulfilled  well  and  truly  that  great 
saying  of  Spinoza,  often  in  his  mind  and  on  his  lips :  '  Ho- 
mo liber  de  nulla  re  minus  quam  de  morte  cogitat'   (thci  free 


832         THE  WILL  AND  THE  INTELLECT, 

man  thinks  of  iiothiDg  less  than  of  death) ."  But  if  the  sen- 
timent was  "  often  in  his  mind  and  on  his  lips,"  then  he 
must  have  thought  of  death  a  good  deal ;  else  why  the  fre- 
quent vaunt  that  he  did  not  think  of  it  ?  I  see  nothing 
especial!}'  admirable  in  an  apathetic  attitude  towards  death. 
It  is  often  as  much  a  proof  of  imbecility  as  of  mental 
strength.     The  Chinese  coolie  has  it  in  perfection. 

One  of  Chfford's  remarks  was  this  :  ' '  We  are  going  to 
establish  ourselves  in  a  godless  world  and  cast  our  eyes  up 
to  a  soulless  sky."  Of  course  the  utterer  of  this  absurdity 
was  the  bitter  opponent  of  Spiritualism,  which  roused  him 
as  a  red  flag  rouses  the  bull  of  the  arena  ;  and  no  wonder, 
since  our  preterhuman  phenomena  are  the  downfall  and  the 
disgrace  of  his  crude  speculations.  These  phenomena  are 
more  easily  demonstrated  now  than  man}'  of  the  conclusions 
of  orthodox  science  ;  more  accessible  than  many  admitted 
facts  in  patholog}^ ;  as  verifiable  as  those  of  analj'tic  chem- 
istr}',  or  of  phj'sical  astronomy. 

Providence  has  thus  given  us  something  more  than  the 
testimon}^  of  the  affections  —  unspeakably  precious  as  that 
is  —  something  more  than  the  affirmations  of  the  heart,  on 
"^vhich  to  found  our  trust  in  immortality^  When  a  new 
generation  shall  be  trained  up  to  accept  it  as  a  fact  of 
science,  the  effect  cannot  fail  to  be  conducive  to  the  moral 
and  religious  advancement  of  civilized  man. 

To  rise  to  the  "height  of  that  great  argument,"  —  the 
proofs  of  the  soul's  immortality,  —  we  must  realize  that 
there  is  a  soul,  at  once  transcendent  and  immanent,  in  the 
macrocosm  as  well  as  in  the  microcosm  ;  in  the  universe  as 
well  as  in  this  fleeting  apparition  of  flesh  and  bones  forming 
man's  phj'sical  organism.  Without  such  a  conviction  there 
can  be  no  earnest  religious  feeling,  free  from  all  supersti- 
tion and  disharmony.  And  without  religious  feeling  a 
knowledge  of  our  immortality  lacks  that  element  of  vitality 
and  aspiration  which  can  make  it  a  power  for  good,  a  reno- 


THE   SENTIMENT   OF   IMMORTALITY.  333 

vator,  a  purifier,  and  an  nplifter.  Unless  there  is  a  supreme 
spiritual  tribunal  of  absolute  right,  justice,  and  love  in  the 
cosmos,  immortalit}^  would  be  a  doubtful  boon  ;  having 
faith  in  such,  and  thus  having  faith  in  God,  we  see  rifts  of 
liglit  through  all  that  is  obscure ;  the  significance  and 
grandeur  of  life  begin  to  dawn  upon  our  finite  and  falUble 
minds,  and  the  evils,  perplexities,  and  sufferings  of  this 
brief  span  of  time  are  lost  in  the  ineffable  compensations  of 
tjternitj.  Without  the  bias  imparted  by  such  a  rational 
and  inspiring  hope,  a  knowledge  of  the  mere  externals  of 
Spiritualism  ma}^  carry  with  it  no  more  of  saving  grace  than 
a  knowledge  of  the  tricks  of  a  juggler  or  the  feats  of  an 
acrobat. 

The  greatest  truths  address  themselves  more  to  the  feelings 
and  the  Vvill  than  to  the  intellect.  A  truth  like  immortality 
must  be  felt  before  it  can  really  become  a  truth  to  the  in- 
dividual. The  frigid  assent  of  the  intellect  alone  cannot 
make  it  an  inspiration  and  a  sanctifying  force.  Tlie  merely 
phenomenal  facts  having  been  investigated  and  accepted  as 
true,  a  life-long  task,  na}',  a  never-ending  task,  lies  before 
us  in  studying  the  relations  of  the  stupendous  truth  to 
life,  to  science,  to  philosoph}^,  morality,  and  religion.  Sure- 
\j  if  ''  God  and  immortality"  was  a  creed  sufficient  for  the 
prophets,  and  for  Christ,  it  is  sufficient  for  the  earnest 
Spiritualist ;  for  it  includes  all  that  there  is  of  true  and 
essential  in  all  the  creeds  and  all  the  religions  ever  formu- 
lated in  the  thouglits  of  the  pure  in  heart.  The  fatherhood 
of  God,  the  confraternity  of  all  intelligences  partaking  in 
the  divine  life,  the  immortality  of  all  souls,  the  supremacy 
of  the  law  of  love,  and  of  the  law  of  right,  —  such  are  the 
great  realities  which  Christ  came  to  teach ;  and  such  are 
what  Spiritualism  reaffirms. 


834  CONCLUDING  EEFLECTIONS. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

THEISM   IN  THE    LIGHT  OF    SPIRITUALISM. THE    DIVINE    PER- 
SONALITY.  THE    INSTINCT    OF    PRATER. THE    GENERALI- 

~  ZATION      ENCIRCLING     ALL     OTHERS. THE      DOCTRINE      OP 

SPHERES. PSYCHOMETRT. ILLUSTRATIVE  FACTS. ORI- 
GIN OF  THE  THEORY  OF  OBJECT-SOULS.  INCAUTIOUS  IN- 
VESTIGATORS.    CONCLUDING    REFLECTIONS. 

I  HAVE  said  elsewhere  that  Spiritualism  is  not  a  form  of 
religion.  So  far  as  it  is  a  realization  of  the  great  facts  of 
God  and  immortality,  it  is  religion  itself.  It  proves  to  us 
the  existence  of  ethereal  beings,  exercising  a  preterhuman 
power  over  matter.  Na}^,  it  proves  that  our  deceased 
friends  are  still  alive,  and,  inferentially,  that  there  must  be 
a  spirit- world,  however  impenetrable  it  ma}'  be  to  mortal 
sense. 

It  would  be  a  narrow  conception  not  to  suppose  that 
what  is  true  of  our  planet  ma}'  be  possible  for  all  others 
throughout  the  universe ;  that  they  too  may  have  their 
human  occupants,  some  perhaps  with  organizations  and 
powers  superior  to  our  own  ;  that  every  planet  may  have 
its  spiritual  sphere ;  that  all  created  inteUigences  must, 
either  before  or  after  the  dissolution  of  the  earth-body, 
have,  in  some  state,  the  privilege  of  intercommunication  ; 
and  that  in  the  hierarchy  of  spirits  there  must  be  some 
inconceivably  superior  to  all  that  it  is  our  present  priv- 
ilege to  know  of  by  direct  experience. 

All  these  are  inferences  fairly  deducible  from  facts ; 
facts  which  have  either  been  verified  by  actual  scientific 


THE   GREAT   GENERALIZATION.  835 

demonstration,  or  which  are  analogous  with  such  as  have 
been  so  verified.  But  is  there  not  still  another,  an  all- 
comprehending  inference,  which  follows  inevitably  from 
those  named?  The  cosmos  shows  the  supremacy  of  one 
Intelhgence  and  one  Will.  Even  the  atheistic  pliilosoi^hy 
of  Hartmann  claims  to  prove  this  by  a  series  of  acute  dem- 
onstrations drawn  from  the  positive  sciences.  The  theistic 
conception  thus  becomes  corroborated  b}'  the  practical 
proofs  of  the  existence  of  finite  and  subordinate  spirits  ; 
each  one  destined  to  realize  at  some  period  of  his  immortal 
life  that  he  too  is  a  child  of  the  Infinite. 

The  Supreme  Being,  if  he  has  Intelligence  and  Will, 
must  be  also  conscious,  smce  there  can  be  no  knowledge 
without  a  consciousness  of  it,  active  in  some  state  or  other. 
Using  the  word  person  in  its  large  and  ultra-etymological 
sense.  He  must  be  also  personal,  since  consciousness  in- 
volves personality.  This  does  not  depend,  as  Schelling, 
Hartmann,  and  even  A.  J.  Davis,  seem  to  think,  on  indi- 
vidualization through  organism,  nor  on  the  relativity  of  a 
person,  —  on  the  distinction  of  a  me  from  a  not  me.  "  An 
eminent  philosophical  ph3'sicist,  Hermann  Lotze,  remarks  : 

' '  Personality  has  its  basis  in  pure  selfhood  —  in  self- 
consciousness  —  without  reference  to  that  which  is  not  self. 
The  personality  ©f  God,  therefore,  does  not  necessarily 
involve  the  distinction  by  God  of  himself  from  what  is  not 
himself,  and  so  his  limitation  or  finiteness  ;  on  the  contrary, 
perfect  personality  is  to  be  found  onh^  in  God,  while  in  all 
finite  spirits  there  exists  only  a  weak  imitation  of  per- 
sonality. The  finiteness  of  the  finite  is  not  a  productive 
condition  of  personality,  but  rather  a  bar  to  its  perfect 
development." 

The  fact  that  there  are  finite  spirits,  conscious  and 
clairvoyant,  to  whom  we  are  in  some  way  related,  would 
justify  the  human  instinct  of  prayer.  Surrounded  as  we 
are  by  hosts  of  witnesses,  not  only  of  our  acts  but  of  our 
very  thoughts,  we  may  well  believe  that,  as  Christ  dis- 


3C6  CONCLUDING    REFLECTIONS. 

tinctl}^  teaches  in  what  he  says  of  little  children,  there  may 
be  guardian  spirits  not  inattentive  to  our  wants,  or  impen- 
etrable to  our  appeals.  Should  it  be  said  that  this  belief 
ma}'  lead  to  a  kind  of  poh'theism,  the  answer  is,  that,  as  we 
can  look  onl}*  to  good  spirits  for  good,  these  must  be  such 
as  act,  and  would  have  us  act,  strictly  in  conformity  with 
divine  law. 

Man}^  unconsidered  cases  of  apparent  spirit  interposi- 
tion—  as  where  a  man  b}'  a  sudden  premonition  gives  up 
the  idea  of  embarking  in  a  certain  steamer  —  ma}^  occur  as 
answers  to  interior  prayers,  of  which  the  individual  is  not 
normally  conscious.  A  praj'er  for  deli^'erance  from  phys- 
ical danger  maj^  be  answered  without  any  violation  of  nat- 
ural law.  Spiritualism  teaches  us  that  prayer  is  no  mere 
shouting  into  a  void,  where  there  is  no  hearing  and  whence 
comes  no  response.  One  claiming  to  be  a  freed  spirit 
saj'S  :  "  TFe  pray  for  help  whenever  we  want  it,  let  the 
object  be  what  it  may,  except  that  it  must  not  be  an  evil 
object.  Whatever  is  done  must  be  done  by  the  divine 
sanction,  and  to  Him  j^our  prayers  should  be  addressed. 
But  he  permits  spirits  to  execute  his  decrees.  You  may 
call  on  that  spirit  of  God  which  dwells  in  the  souls  of 
spirits  to  aid  you.  We  do  not  pray  to  spirits,  but  to  God." 
All  the  great  seers  have  been  believers  in  the  efficac}^  of 
pra3'er. 

Spiritualism  being  thus  boundless  in  its  diameter,  and 
embracing  not  only  the  visible  universe  but  the  unseen  in 
its  indefinable  circumference, — threatening  to  include  and 
absorb  all  minor  forms  of  religion  in  its  great  generahza- 
tion  of  God  and  immortalit}", — it  is  not  surprising  that 
the  organs  of  sects,  not  even  omitting  that  little  circle 
labelled  "Free  Religionists,"  should  be  disturbed  by  the 
X)rospect  of  a  "  scientific  basis"  for  Spiritualism,  and  that 
they  should  express  their  dissatisfaction,  somewhat  pre- 
maturely, in  no  measured  terms. 


THE  GREAT   GENERALIZATION.  837 

One  thing  taught  me  by  my  early  experiences  in  mes- 
merism was  the  fact  that  there  is  a  spheral  emanation  from 
all  substances  or  objects,  physical  or  spiritual.  If  I  mag- 
netized a  handkerchief,  or  a  tumbler  of  water,  the  somnam- 
bulic sensitive  could  always  detect  it.  The  test  was  re- 
peated under  so  many  varying  conditions  that  the  fact  was 
conclusively  proved.  Are  we  not  told,  in  Acts  (xix.  12), 
that  from  Paul  ' '  were  brought  unto  the  sick  handkerchiefs 
or  aprons,  and  the  diseases  departed  from  them"? 

From  vegetables  and  trees  we  know  there  are  physical 
emanations  which  we  detect  as  odors.  Ma}/  there  not  be 
emanations  from  the  psychical  nature,  as  well  as  the  phys- 
ical —  from  that  which  thinks,  as  well  as  that  which  grows  ? 
How  often  my  somnambule  used  to  sa}^  of  persons  to  whom 
she  was  introduced,  "I  like,"  or  "I  do  not  like,  his 
sphere ! "  In  the  activitj^  of  this  faculty  we  may  find  an 
explanation  of  some  of  the  phenomena  of  psychometry 
and  trance-mediumship.  It  is  not  always  necessary  to 
hypothecate  the  agency  of  a  freed  spirit  to  account  for 
these.  The  ps3'chometrist  touches  a  written  paper  or  a  frag- 
ment from  an  old  building,  and  receives  impressions  M^hich 
often  turn  out  wonderfully  accurate  ;  and  the  experiment 
has  been  repeated  so  often  that  no  theory  of  chance  will 
cover  the  facts. 

May  there  not  be  spiritual  reliquice,  ps3'chic  auras,  ethe- 
real emanations,  less  transient  than  the  physical,  to  which 
the  medial  subject  is  sensitive  when  brought  within  their 
sphere  ?  He  enters  a  room  for  the  first  time,  and  shudders 
at  ho  knows  not  what.  Gradually  or  swiftly  an  impression 
afl'ects  his  consciousness,  and  he  tells  3^ou.  that  a  murder  or 
a  suicide  once  occurred  in  that  room.  On  inquiry  you 
learn  he  is  right.  Whence  came  the  impression?  From 
some  psychical  aura  left  on  the  furniture  or  the  walls,  or 
from  a  communicating  spirit? 

The  action  of  light  will  impress  an  image  on  the  surface  of 


838  CONCLUDING   REFLECTIONS. 

inorganic  objects.  A  familiar  experiment  is  to  la}-  a  ke}', 
or  some  other  object,  on  a  sheet  of  white  paper  and  expose 
it  for  a  few  minutes  to  the  action  of  sunlight,  and  then  lay 
the  paper  away  where  it  will  not  be  disturbed.  After  sev- 
eral months,  if  the  paper  be  carried  into  a  dark  place  and 
laid  on  a  piece  of  hot  metal,  the  spectre  of  the  key  will  ap- 
pear. 

Dr.  J.  W.  Draper,  Professor  of  Chemistry  and  Plij'siol- 
og3'  in  the  University  of  New  York,  says  :  "  I  believe  that 
a  shadow  never  falls  upon  a  wall  without  leaving  there  a 
permanent  trace,  —  a  trace  which  might  be  made  visible  by 
resorting  to  proper  processes." 

If  a  wafer  be  laid  on  a  surface  of  polished  metal,  which 
is  then  breathed  upon,  and  if,  when  the  moisture  of  the 
breath  has  evaporated,  the  wafer  be  shaken  off,  we  shall 
find  that  the  whole  polished  surface  is  not  as  it  was  before, 
although  our  senses  can  detect  no  difference ;  for  if  we 
breathe  again  upon  it  the  surface  will  be  moist  everywhere 
except  on  the  spot  previously  sheltered  by  the  wafer,  which 
will  now  appear  as  a  spectral  image  on  the  surface.  Again 
and  again  we  breathe,  and  the  moisture  evaporates,  but  still 
the  spectral  wafer  reappears. 

If  such  subtile  effects  ma}^  be  produced  b}^  the  agencj-  of 
light,  heat,  or  moisture,  why  ma}^  not  thought  be  equally 
operative  in  leaving  impressions  recognizable  b}^  clairvoj^- 
ant  or  spiritual  senses?  "The  psychometrist,"  says  Mrs. 
Maria  M.  King,  "is  impressed,  in  her  or  his  sensitive  or- 
ganization, b}^  ethers  of  the  many  grades  that  inhere  in 
substance  and  forms,  and  attach  themselves  like  S3^mbohc 
characters  to  everything,  and  vaguel}^  record  unwritten 
histories  of  all  times,  all  deeds,  and  all  thoughts  of  men." 

"  Because,"  says  Mr.  G.  H.  Stebbins,  *'  a  person  quotes 
from  books  he  never  saw,  or  tells  of  what  he  never  knew  in 
any  external  way,  that  is  not  final  proof  that  he  is  under 
an  external  spirit-control.     Psychometry  and  clairvoyance 


THE  GREAT   GENERALIZATION.  339 

'  may  sometimes  solve  it  all ;  and  sometimes  we  must  accept 
the  solution  of  direct  spirit  influence."' 

In  his  "  Origin  of  Civilization"  Sir  John  Lubbock  sa3'S, 
"  The  so-called  object-souls,  souls  of  useful  articles,  —  tools, 
implements,  armor,  houses,  canoes,  —  have  a  place  among 
the  spirits  of  the  inferior  races  ;  "  and  he  calls  this  ' '  a  pure- 
13^  utilitarian  conception  of  the  soul."  And  3'et  the  con- 
ception of  the  untutored  savage  may  be  an  inference  from 
actual  phenomena,  developed  in  his  own  psjxhometric  ex- 
periences. That  these  may  be  mixed  with  delusions  and 
false  inferences  is  quite  natural. 

Why  is  it,  we  are  asked,  that  our  phenomena,  even  when 
admitted,  make  so  little  impression  on  many  minds?  It 
ma}'  be  because  the}'  are  so  engrossed  in  thoughts  foreign 
to  the  subject  that  they  cannot  afford  to  give  it  due  con- 
sideration ;  or  it  may  be  that  the}'  fail  to  recognize  its  vast 
significance,  through  the  non-development  of  a  faculty  by 
which  spiritual  facts  are  recognized  and  appreciated. 

A  phenomenon  that  would  excite  even  a  dog's  attention 
may  be  dismissed  as  meaningless  by  the  unreceptive  mind. 
One  would  think  that  a  single  positive  experience  in  direct 
writing  would  give  a  man  something  to  reflect  on  with  in- 
terest for  the  rest  of  his  life  ;  for  it  settles  many  questions 
in  philosophy,  theology,  and  positive  science,  which  are  still 
in  dispute.  It  presents  a  fact  utterly  inexplicable  by  any 
theory  consistent  with  the  teachings  of  a  Sadducean  mate- 
rialism. 

After  the  putative  spirits  have  demonstrated  to  us  the 
essential  fact  that  our  deceased  friends  are  still  alive,  —  that 
spirits  have  a  power  over  matter  so  great  as  to  seem  to  us 
magical  or  miraculous,  —  are  we  not  supplied  with  facts 
suflficient  to  challenge  our  best  intellectual  energy  iv..c  their 
proper  appreciation  and  study  ?  Would  we  have  the  spirits 
go  on  and,  saving  us  the  trouble  of  further  thought,  en- 
lighten us  on  subjects  moral,  rehgious,  or  scientific — sub- 


340  CONCLUDING   REFLECTIONS. 

jects  coming  within  the  province  of  our  own  mental  powers 
and  duties  ? 

How  do  we  know  that  the  ver}^  attempt  to  communicate 
with  mortals  does  not  place  a  spirit  in  a  state  of  con- 
sciousness discrete  from  that  which  is  habitual  to  him  in  the 
spirit- world  —  a  state  perhaps  inferior  to  that,  and  one  in 
which  memorj'  is  clouded,  or  the  power  of  thought  is  hm- 
ited?     The  argument  might  be  analogically  pressed. 

Th^  mistake  of  incautious  investigators  is  in  not  making 
enough  of  the  clearty  demonstrated  and  demonstrable  phe- 
nomena which  thej  alread}"  have.  They  would  seek  new 
wonders  before  they  have  begun  to  digest  or  appreciate  the 
old.  The  natural  consequence  has  been  that  they  offer,  as 
it  were,  a  bounty  for  all  sorts  of  fraud.  The  instances  are 
notorious  wherein  persons  with  some  little  measure  of  me- 
dial power,  but  sadly  impecunious  financially,  have  given 
way  to  the  temptation  of  getting  up  manifestations  wholly 
or  partlj^  spurious.  Hence  the  exposures  which  have  cre- 
ated the  impression  that  all  medial  phenomena  are  impos- 
tures or  delusions.  The  fault  is  largely  with  immature  Spir- 
itualists themselves.  They  are  too  eager  to  witness  and 
proclaim  new  and  incredible  phenomena.  The  demand  nat- 
urally creates  a  supply  and  an  over-supply.  Some  one  me- 
dium, or  medial  pretender,  tries  to  outdo  his  competitor 
in  ministering  to  the  blind,  unhealthy  appetite  of  over-hasty 
seekers,  and  hence  come  exaggerations  and  impositions. 
Such  drawbacks  are  to  be  anticipated,  but  the  course  of 
Spirituahsm  must  be  none  the  less  onward  in  the  future,  as 
it  has  been  in  the  past,  in  spite  of  all  rebuffs,  misrepresen- 
tations, and  assaults. 

The  injunction  to.  "try  the  spirits"  must  be  literally 
heeded,  even  when  they  come  objectively  to  the  observer. 
It  is  a  ruse  of  a  certain  class  of  spirits  to  try  to  excite  at- 
tention by  assuming  distinguished  names.  The  creduhty 
that  accepts  without  question  the  report  of  spirits  calling 


THE   GREAT    GENERALIZATION.  341 

themselves  Moses,  Elijah,  Plato,  Aspasi^.,*  John  the  Bap- 
tist, Judas  Iscariot,  Bacon,  Swedenborg,  &c.,  is  quite  as 
deplorable  as  the  skepticism  that  rejects  as  baseless  all  these 
strange  phenomenal  manifestations. 

That  distinct  human  forms,  suitably  clad,  are  presented, 
and  this  where  no  theory  of  human  fraud  or  hallucination 
is  tenable,  is  a  fact  v/hich  science  has  got  to  accept  and 
deal  with.  That  in  some  instances  these  forms  are  fairl}^ 
recognized  and  identified  ;  that  they  can  be  seen,  felt,  and 
heard,  "  thus  establishing  their  existence  through  the  same 
three  senses  which  take  cognizance  of  the  existence  of  our 
fellow-men ;  "  that  the}^  will  prove  b}^  act  or  speech  their 
relationship  in  the  same  way  as  persons  do  whom  we  do 
not  scruple  in  our  daily  life  to  regard  as  bodil}'^  realities  ; 
that  they  will  manifest  a  preterhuman  power  over  matter, 
and  a  wonderful  clairvoyance  in  many  surprising  ways,  far 
bej'ond  the  art  of  the  conjurer,  as  the  best  conjurers  them- 
selves now  admit,  is  also  a  fact  that  science  will  have  to 
deal  with ;  since  the  facts  are  all  the  time  multiplying, 
and  the  proofs  becoming  more  cogent. 

The  circumstance  that  scientific  persons  have,  as  a  gen- 
eral rule,  kept  aloof  from  the  whole  great  subject,  partly 
through  a  misgiving  as  to  their  ability  to  cope  with  it,  and 
partly  through  their  own  a  priori  objections  and  rooted 
prejudices,  has  left  it  largel}^  in  the  hands  of  those  who, 
from  defective  training,  or  from  a  lack  of  the  critical  fac- 
ulty, have  supposed  that  all  which  ma}'  come  from  the  un- 
seen world  must  be  authoritative  and  right.  Messages  that 
violate  all  the  laws  of  logic  and  common  sense  have  thus 

*  It  is  not  denied  that  remarkable  phenomena  occur  at  times,  which  seem  to 
favor  the  pretensions  of  these  ancient  spirits.  Mr.  A.  L.  Hatch,  in  a  letter 
dated  Astoria,  L.  I.,  Sept.  2,  1^80,  writes  :  "  Your  imagination  cannot  picture 
a  form  more  perfect,  more  beautiful,  than  that  of  Aspasia  standing  before  us. 
We  asked  if  she  could  speak  in  Greek.  She  did  so  by  giving  us  a  Greek  sen- 
tence, and  what  is  more,  quickly  corrected  me  in  the  pronunciation  of  some  of 
the  words.  I  much  doubt  if  there  are  living  others  who  have  been  so  poirected 
oy  a  spirit  of  twenty-four  ceaturios  past," 


342  CONCLUDING    REFLECTIONS. 

been  accepted  as  bona  fide  communications  from  the  world's 
great  departed  thinkers.  Obvious  hoaxes  have  been  imposed 
as  genuine  representations  or  revelations,  because  they  came 
apparentl}^  corroborated  by  proofs  of  preterhuman  power. 
Stories  of  matches  and  marriages  in  the  unseen  world  have 
been  swallowed  because  the  operating  forces,  whether  of 
human  or  spirit  origin,  could  impress  the  unwary  victim  by 
objective  proofs  of  v/hat  seemed,  and  'probably  was,  pre- 
terhumi:n  action  or  knowledge. 

These  things  only  prove  how  important  it  is  that  science 
should  change  its  attitude  of  haughty  unconcern  or  abject 
fear  towards  our  phenomena ;  that  a  new  S3'stem  of  ex- 
haustive investigation  should  be  adopted  ;  one  uniting  the 
method  that  allows  the  spirits  to  fix  their  own  conditions 
with  the  method  that  accepts  nothing  as  proved  until  it  is 
presented  under  conditions  sufficient  for  the  most  thorough 
and  rigorous  scientific  verification.  There  is  some  truth  in 
the  following  observation  by  Mr.  William  Oxley,  of  Man- 
chester, England,  a  faithful  investigator,  who  is  one  of  those 
who  would  leave  the  operating  spirits  untrammelled  b}'  con- 
ditions ;  but  it  is  only  one  side  of  the  truth  which  he  pre- 
sents, and  it  must  be  supplemented  b3'  the  other : 

"  A  genuine  lover  of  truth  for  its  own  sake,  who  enters 
this  domain  of  occult  science  accepting  the  conditions  which 
are  allowed,  though  beset  in  the  commencement  with  doubts 
and  difficulties,  will,  by  perseverance,  soon  receive  ample 
proofs  and  tests  of  the  genuineness  of  ps3xhometrical  man- 
ifestations and  spiritual  agenc}-  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  doubter  who  investigates  for  the  purpose  of  discovering 
imposture  and  fraud,  will  discover  what  he  or  she  thinks  is 
sufficient  to  justify  the  pre-existing  doubts,  and  sooner  or 
later  retires  in  disgust." 

Let  me  illustrate  the  truth  of  this  by  an  incident.  A  cer- 
tain investigator  objected  strenuously  to  the  condition  of 
darkness  under  which  the  phenomenon  of  the  floating  guitar 


THE   GREAT   GENERALIZATION.  .343 

was  given.  But  he  followed  up  the  investigation  neverthe- 
less ;  and  one  evening,  when  a  friendly  burst  of  moonlight 
lighted  up  the  whole  room  through  an  accidental  misplacing 
of  the  curtain,  he  saw,  what  he  had  long  wished  to  see,  the 
guitar  high  up  by  the  ceiling,  aloof  from  any  visible  sup- 
port, and  pla^^ed  on  by  some  unknown  force  exercising  in- 
telligence. 

It  is  the  part  of  wisdom,  then,  to  investigate  without 
prejudice  under  the  conditions  offered  by  the  spirits,  but  to 
admit  nothing  as  proved  until,  by  some  unexpected  en- 
largement of  the  conditions,  the  proof  wanting  is  clearly 
obtained. 

That  psychometric  impressions  unverified  are  to  be 
trusted,  would  be  a  dangerous  admission.  Both  psychom- 
etry  and  clairvoyance  may  be  in  fault,  just  as  the  man  who 
has  jumped  a  ditch  once  may  miss  it  at  the  second  trial. 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  finite  infallibility.  I  must,  there- 
fore, wholly  dissent  from  the  notion  of  Dr.  J.  R.  Buchanan, 
that  "  We  can  attain  a  definite  and  accurate  knowledge 
to-day  not  only  of  Jesus,  but  of  the  Apostles  and  the 
entire  group  of  characters  mentioned  in  the  Bible  "  through 
the  psj^chometric  or  some  related  facult3^  All  biographical 
history  teaches  us  the  fallacy  of  such  pretensions  ;  warns 
us  against  their  obvious  incertitude  and  mischievous  ten- 
dency. The  seer  of  to-morrow  may  contradict  the  seer  of 
to-day.  So  it  was  in  the  past ;  so  it  will  continue  to  be. 
How  man}^  volumes  have  we  had  professing  to  give  supple- 
mentary lives  of  Jesus  and  the  apostles,  through  medial 
impression  or  from  the  communications  of  spirits  !  And 
each  new  volume  contradicts  its  predecessors.  I  have 
before  me  a  work  in  French,  dated  as  far  back  as  1866,  and 
sent  me  b}^  the  estimable  author.  It  is  in  three  large  vol- 
umes, and  is  entitled  ^'-  Spiritisme  Chretien  ou  Revelation  cle 
la  Revelation;"  and  further:  "The  Four  Gospels,  fol- 
lowed by  the  Commandments,  explained  in  spirit  and  in 


344  CONCLUDING   REFLECTIONS. 

truth  by  the  Evangelists,  assisted  by  the  Apostles  and  by 
Moses ;  received  and  arranged  b}^  J.  B.  Roustaing,  advo- 
cate at  the  Imperial  Court  of  Bordeaux."  It  is  ably  and 
clearly  written,  in  the  interest  of  the  Kardec  doctrine  of 
reincarnation. 

Reason  cannot  assent  to  such  unverified  pretensions. 
The  moment  we  go  one  step  beyond  facts  and  their  legiti- 
mate inferences,  whether  they  come  to  us  affirmed  by 
spirit,  seer,  or  medium,  we  are  all  adrift  without  a  com- 
pass. There  is  enough  of  the  wonderful  in  the  demonstra- 
ble phenomena,  without  ingrafting  on  Spiritualism,  proper 
and  universal,  the  idios^'ncrasies  of  individuals,  whether  in 
the  unseen  world  or  in  this. 

Spiritualism  is  simply  the  science  of  continuous  life  ;  of 
life  in  which  the  incident  called  death  is  a  mere  shedding 
of  the  outer  envelope.  The  early  Christians  showed  by 
their  constant  adoption  of  the  butterfl}^  as  the  emblem  of 
their  faith  in  immortality,  that  the  old  illustration  of  the 
chrj'salis  expressed  their  notion  as  well  as  it  does  that  of 
modern  Spiritualists  :  this,  namely,  that  the  psychical  or- 
ganism is  involved  in  the  physical.  This  science  is  based 
on  facts  that  fully  justify  the  spiritual  h3q3othesis,  and  is 
w^arranted  by  a  course  of  reasoning  both  inductive  and 
deductive.  Thus  Spiritualism  has  a  vital  advantage  over 
all  those  historical  or  traditional  beliefs  whose  tendency  it 
is  to  become  weakened  by  time.  Wh}^  is  it  that  modern 
Christians  who  acquiesce  in  the  facts  related  in  the  Bible, 
are  unable  to  accept  precisely  similar  facts  when  vouched 
for  by  some  of  the  most  eminent  physicists  of  the  present 
day?  It  is  because  all  faith  in  the  spiritual  and  the  preter- 
human has  died  oat.  On  many  minds  the  only  hold  which 
Christianity  now  has  is  in  the  excellence  of  its  ethical 
teachings. 

Mr.  G.  F.  Green,  one  of  the  most  careful  writers  on  the 
subject,  says  he  does  not  look  to  Spiritualism  for  any  influ- 


THE  GREAT   GENERALIZATION.  345 

ence  upon  morality  or  religion  from  the  revelation  of  any 
new  and  startling  truths.  He  looks  rather  to  the  increased 
vitality  of  the  belief  in  a  future  life ;  to  the  consequent 
widening  and  enlarging  of  our  ideal  of  happiness,  which 
he  regards  as  the  actual  basis  of  all  moralit3\  The  knowl- 
edge of  our  immortality  must  add  an  incentive  for  us  to 
seek  out  for  ourselves  the  true  path.  We  must  not  look  to 
advanced  spirits  for  any  infalhble  code.  Heligion  is  not  a 
belief  in  certain  dogmas.  In  the  divine  laws  of  our  being 
we  must  find  the  moral  law  and  the  religious  impulse. 
Thus  science,  and  not  dogma,  must  rule  ;  since  moralit}'  is 
the  art  of  conforming  our  lives  to  the  highest  law  expressed 
in  our  own  nature,  human  and  spiritual,  mortal  and  im- 
mortal ;  while  religion  is  the  reverent  sense  of  a  power 
superior  to  our  own,  and  able  to  affect  our  destiny. 

The  existence  of  beings  in  ethereal  bodies,  invisible  to 
our  imperfect  senses,  is  an  hj^pothesis  which  the  latest  dis- 
coveries in  science  make  not  only  possible,  but  probable. 
It  has  been  proved  that  all  the  great  forces  of  nature  are 
accompanied  with  vibrations  of  a  form  of  matter  so  subtile 
that  our  purest  atmosphere  is  dense  matter  compared  with 
it.  Onl}^  by  their  effects  do  these  impalpable  grades  of 
matter  become  known  to  us ;  but  these  effects  show  that 
power  is  increased  the  less  gross  the  matter  becomes.  Let 
the  proof  be  given  that  intelligent  beings,  exerting  a  pre- 
terhuman power  over  matter,  manifest  their  existence  b}^ 
their  acts  (as  thej^  have  done) ,  and  there  is  no  good  reason 
why  the  man  of  real  science  should  refuse  to  give  the  evi- 
dence its  proper  weight. 

Even  in  dark  circles  the  electric  rapidity  with  which  cer- 
tain phenomena  are  produced  is  a  sufficient  proof  of  their 
preterhuman  character.  I  have  been  present  repeated]}'  at 
seances  where  a  tambourine  was  moved  from  the  table  to 
the  floor,  and  from  the  floor  to  the  table,  with  such  vio- 
lence and  inconceivable  celeritj-,  that  no  one  could  doubt 


846  CONCLUDING   REFLECTIONS. 

that  the  foroe  exerted  was  not  that  of  a  mortal.  The  con- 
ditions were  perfect,  as  security  against  fraud ;  the  move- 
ment, even  in  the  light,  would  have  been  impossible ;  but 
occurring  in  utter  darkness,  and  never  causing  the  instru- 
ment to  touch  one  of  the  dozen  hands  placed  outstretched 
on  the  table,  it  showed  that  an  abnormal  power  was  at  work, 
to  which  darkness  was  no  obstacle,  and  which  could  effect 
the  transfer  with  a  velocity  and  precision  whollj^  inconceiv- 
able unless  done  by  faculties  transcending  the  human. 

The  Pantheistic  idea  of  the  absorption  of  finite  individ- 
uahties  in  the  life  of  the  Infinite  —  even  as  brooks  and 
rivers  get  their  drops  from  the  ocean,  and  return  them  to 
it  —  finds  no  analogj^  in  the  facts  of  Spiritualism,  wliich 
teaches  distinctl}-  the  imperishability  of  the  individual  and 
the  continuation  of  the  identical  Ego.  R.  W.  Emerson, 
in  his  pathetic  poem  on  the  decease  of  his  little  boy,  ex- 
presses the  Pantheistic  conception  in  the  followiug  couplet : 

"  The  master,  Death,  with  sovereign  rite, 
Pours  finite  into  infinite." 

The  theory  is  that  the  Infinite  Mind  keeps  individual- 
izing his  exuberant  life  in  organisms,  but  does  his  work  so 
blindly  that  "the  master,  Deatli,"  keeps  undoing  what 
God  has  done,  and  reducing  the  life-process  to  an  object- 
less pouring  out  and  pouring  back  of  the  same  essence. 
To  which  fantasj'.  Spiritualism  rephes :  G-od,  and  not 
Death,  is  the  master ;  and  God  has  done  his  work  with 
such  unerring  wisdom  that  a  superior  organism  for  man 
(and  perhaps  for  the  lower  animals)  is  involved  in  the 
physical,  and  is  alwa^'s  ready  to  take  its  place.  God  is 
not  the  absorber  of  human  individualities,  but  the  gracious, 
all-powerful  One  who  eternallj-  expands  his  own  life  in  im- 
parting it  to  subordinate  beings  ;  eternall}'  enriches  his 
own  love  b}'  giving,  and  in  seeing  it  reflected,  as  the  sun 
is  in  the  dewdrop,  in  the  progressive  happiness,  wisdom, 


THE   GREAT   GENERALIZATION.  347 

and  love  of  his  dependent  creatures,  and  in  the  develop- 
ment of  their  as  3'et  rudimental  free  will. 

And  3'et  Pantheism  is  true,  though  but  a  part  of  the 
truth.  If  man  is  the  image  of  his  Maker,  if  the  finite  is 
patterned  after  the  Infinite,  then  the  deductions  from  our 
facts  justify  the  conception  that  the  nature-element  of 
Deity  may  in  its  consciousness  be  discrete  from  the  om- 
niscient consciousness  of  God  in  the  Highest.  Immanent 
in  the  universe,  he  ma}^  there  differ  in  degree  from  what  he 
is  in  that  transcendent  state  in  which  he  is  above  and  be- 
3'ond  nature  ;  —  is  the  One  and  only  Possibility  b}^  which 
all  things  have  become  possible  and  existent.  Thus  Pan- 
theism is  viewed  as  the  inner  circle  of  a  grander  Theism, 
and  two  ever-conflicting  beliefs  are  found  as  harmonious  as 
the  convex  and  concave  of  the  same  crescent. 

We  may  exist  in  the  midst  of  a  world  of  spirits  just  as 
we  do  in  the  midst  of  that  world  which  was  unknown  to 
man  till  it  was  revealed  by  the  microscope.  Spiritualism 
assures  us  that  this  is  not  only  a  possibility  but  a  realit_y. 
The  universe  penetrable  to  our  senses  may  be  but  a  frac- 
tion of  that  Infinite  Whole  patent  to  Omnipotence.  Sir 
W.  E.  Grove,  in  his  "Correlation  of  Ph3'sical  Forces," 
remarks:  "In  very  many  of  the  forms  which  matter 
assumes,  it  is  porous,  and  pervaded  by  more  volatile 
essences,  which  may  differ  as  much  in  kind  as  matter 
does."  Sir  Humphrey  Dav}^  hj^pothecates  an  "ethereal 
matter  which  can  never  be  evident  to  the  senses,  and  may 
bear  the  same  relations  to  heat,  light,  and  electricity  that 
these  refined  forms  or  modes  of  existence  of  matter  ma^^ 
bear  to  the  gases." 

I  have  but  a  word  to  say  to  that  small  class  of  would-be 
philosophers  who,  admitting  our  phenomena,  would  get  rid 
of  them  by  a  "  What  of  it  ?     What  do  they  prove  ?  " 

There  are  certain  fundamental  convictions  of  the  human 
mind  which  are  manifestly  undemonstrable ;  and  it  is  an 


348  CONCLUDING   REFLECTIONS. 

f3asy  matter  for  the  extreme  skeptic  to  question  their  truth. 
But  such  questioning,  because  of  the  lack  of  formal  dem- 
onstration, is  not  alvs^a3^s  defensible  on  philosophical 
grounds.  If  the  ultimate  axioms,  where  reason  compels 
us  to  make  a  stand,  are  rejected,  it  is  useless  to  attempt  to 
reason  further.* 

At  every  step  in  life  we  are  obliged  to  recognize  a  power 
external  to  phenomena.  Without  this  recognition  we  could 
not  regard  the  world  as  external,  for,  strictly  speaking,  its 
phenomena  are  effects  on  us,  and  subjective.  The  recog- 
nition of  what  is  outside  us  in  space,  and  distant  in  time, 
depends,  then,  on  the  acceptance  by  reason  of  what  trans- 
cends phenomena. 

Reason  may  admit  that  her  conceptions  of  such  realities 
may  be,  must  be,  imperfect ;  but  she  will  judge  also  that 
her  conceptions,  recognized  as  imperfect,  are  nearer  the 
truth  than  the  decision  to  reject  all  conceptions  of  the  kind 
would  be,  since  that  would  land  us  in  extreme  idealism. 

Science  has  to  transcend  phenomena  at  ever}'  step  ;  the 
whole  fabric  of  human  knowledge  would  collapse  unless 
the  testimonj"  of  consciousness  was  accepted  to  facts  not 
found  among  phenomena,  but  inferred  from  them. 

We  all  believe  that  the  human  beings  around  us  are  ani- 
mated with  conscious  intelligence.  Yet  physical  evidence 
of  this  there  is  none.  Like  our  conviction  of  the  past  and 
of  our  own  continued  existence,  it  is  an  inference  drawn 
from  phenomena  respecting  what  transcends  iDhenomena ; 
yet  it  commands  the  entire  assent  of  reason,  and  hence 
takes  rank  among  our  fundamental  beliefs. 

All  these  considerations  are  ignored  in  the  skeptical  as- 
sumption that  the  reappearance  of  the  form  of  a  deceased 
friend,  conversing  intelligibly,  manifesting  recognizable 
traits  both  physical  and  mental,  giving  proofs  of  identity 

*  In  cfirryinjj  out  this  argument  I  am  largely  indebted  to  the  late  Thomas 
Martin  Herbert's  masterly  work,  "  The  Realistic  Assumptions  of  Moderu  Sci- 
ence Examined."    London :     MacmiUan  <fe  Co.    1879. 


THE   GREAT   GENERALIZATION.  349 

in  a  knowledge  of  the  past,  in  affection  for  kindred,  and  in 
other  indescribable  peculiarities  appreciable  only  b}'  the 
spectator  who  has  known  and  loved  him, — that  all  this  is 
no  evidence  of  the  reappearance  of  that  deceased  person. 

For  such  a  phenomenon  there  is  a  cause,  and  reason 
must  obviously  transcend  phenomena  in  order  to  arrive  at 
that  cause.  The  question  whether  the  cause  may  not  be 
mundane  rather  than  super-mundane  is  purel3^  sophistical, 
and  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  vital  fact  of  the  trans-mortal 
survival.  The  skeptic's  position,  if  tenable,  would  be 
equally  fatal  to  all  scientific  progress  by  questioning  the 
ultimate  grounds,  the  primary,  undemonstrable  convictions, 
on  which  all  science  is  based. 

One  of  our  evangelical  assailants  tells  us  that  "  it  is  the 
mistake  of  the  Spiritualist  that  he  makes  a  religion  of  what 
should  be  a  science."  Are  we  then  to  understand  that  to 
knoiu  is  less  a  warranty  for  rehgious  feeling  and  hope  than 
to  believe,  or  rather  to  try  to  believe? 

It  is  for  the  very  reason  that  Spiritualism  has  a  Scientific 
Basis  in  known  and  demonstrable  facts,  that  it  offers  the 
surest  ground  for  religion.  It  shows  us  that  the  only 
hurtful  heresy  is  the  wrong  thinking  that  leads  to  wrong- 
doing.    It  proves  to  us  that  as  we  sow  we  shall  reap. 

Some  persons,  in  whom  the  religious  or  devotional  in- 
stinct may  be  yet  feeble  or  undeveloped,  may  long  remain 
untouched  by  the  vast  religious  significance  of  a  knowledge 
of  immortality ;  but  in  times  of  bereavement  and  great 
affliction  it  may  rush  back  to  the  heart  with  a  divine, 
awakening  meaning  and  force ;  and  sorrow  may  reveal  to 
us  that  the  certainty  of  a  reunion  with  our  beloved  has  in 
it,  for  the  heart  that  is  not  petrified,  the  highest  and  purest 
religious  element,  since  it  must  give  rise  to  the  profoundest 
gratitude  to  the  Infinite  Giver  of  life  and  love. 


I  GRANT  that  of  the  facts  here  affirmed  to  be  real,  many  are  very  strange, 
nncouth,  and  improbable ;  and  that  we  cannot  understand  them  or  reconcile 
them  with  the  commonly  received  notions  of  spirits  and  the  future  state. 

I  allow  that  there  are  many  over-credulous  persons;  and  that  frauds, 
impostures,  and  delusions  have  been  mixed  up  and  confounded  with  real 
facts  in  Spiritualism. 

I  grant  that  melancholy  and  imagination  have  veiy  great  force,  and  beget 
strange  persuasions ;  and  that  many  stories  of  apparitions  have  been  but 
melancholy  fancies. 

I  know  and  yield  that  there  are  many  strange,  natural  diseases  that  have 
odd  symptoms,  and  produce  astonishing  effects  beyond  the  usual  course  of 
nature;  and  that  these  are  sometimes  quoted  as  explaining  preternatural 
facts. 


iij^twUt^, 


Having  made  these  concessions,  the  postulata  which  I  demand  of  my 
adversaries  as  my  just  right  are : 

That  whether  our  phenomena  occur  or  not  is  a  question  of  fact,  and  not 
of  a  priori  reasoning. 

That  matters  of  fact  can  only  be  proved  by  immediate  sense,  or  by  the 
testimony  of  others.  To  endeavor  to  demonstrate  fact  by  abstract  reason- 
ing or  speculation  is  as  if  a  man  should  attempt  to  prove  by  algebra  or  meta- 
physics that  Julius  Caesar  founded  the  empire  of  Eome. 

A  certain  amount  and  character  of  human  testimony  cannot  be  reasonably 
rejected  as  incredible,  or  as  supporting  facts  contrary  to  nature,  since  all 
facts  within  the  realm  of  nature  must  be  natural. 

That  which  is  sufficiently  and  undeniably  proved  ought  not  to  be  denied 
because  we  know  not  how  it  can  be ;  that  is,  because  there  are  difficulties 
in  the  conceiving  of  it;  otherwise  sense  and  knowledge  are  gone  as  well  as 
faith.  For  the  modus  of  most  things  is  unknown,  and  the  most  obvious  in 
nature  have  inextricable  difficulties  in  the  conceiving  of  them. 

Altered  from  Eev.  Joseph  Glanvil  (1633-1680). 

350 


APPENDIX. 


"^  Scientific  Basis  of  Belief  ." 

The  Rev.  John  Page  Hopps,  an  English  liberal  preacher,  is  the 
author  of  a  little  pamphlet  entitled  "  A  Scientific  Basis  of  Belief  in  a 
Future  Life ;  or  the  Witness  borne  by  Modern  Science  to  the  Reality 
and  Pre-eminence  of  the  Unseen  Universe."  As  he  pursues  a  some- 
what different  method  from  my  own,  but  arrives  at  similar  results,  an 
outline  or  abridgment  of  his  excellent  hrochvre  may  be  here  appro- 
priate. It  should  be  premised  that  he  has  satisfied  himself  of  the  fact 
of  direct  writing  and  other  spiritual  phenomena,  though  he  does  not 
refer  to  them  here. 

If  faith  in  God  or  Immortality  depends  on  the  conviction  of  the 
infallibility  of  the  Bible,  faith  is  already  doomed.  Tlse  marvellous 
spread  of  scientific  knowledge  has  led  to  a  totally  new  demand  for 
evidence  and  demonstration  as  the  antecedent  to  all  belief. 

The  inquiry  into  a  future  life  or  an  unseen  universe  is  a  strictly 
scientific  one.  But  all  the  science  we  can  attain  to  is  relative  to  our 
limited  capacities.  The  first  thing  to  do  is  to  take  the  whole  subject 
out  of  the  realm  of  mystery,  unreality,  fantasy,  and  awe,  and  make 
it  the  object  of  cool  thought  and,  if  possible,  of  scientific  experiment. 
We  have  too  long  been  accustomed  to  speak  of  the  dead  in  a  vague, 
dreamy,  unreal  way.  A  future  life  can  only  mean  the  actual  going 
on  of  the  human  being  in  spite  of  the  incident  called  '•  death." 

The  science  of  the  present  day,  in  hypothecating  atoms  as  the  ulti- 
mate constituents  of  matter,  confesses  that  it  does  not  know  what  an 
atom  is.  Even  in  relation  to  the  world  oi  sense,  it  is  confessedly  true 
tliat  the  ideal  world,  or  world  of  consciousness,  is  immeasurably 
more  vital  than  what  is  usually  called  the  world  of  matter.  Huxky 
himself  afiirms  that  the  inner  world  of  consciousness  is  the  only  one 
we  know  at  first  hand,  —  that  the  external  world  is  only  an  inference 
from  our  sensations. 

The  illustration  requires  a  little  close  thought.  We  hear  the  sound 
of  a  bell,  but,  in  the  exciting  cause,  there  is  nothing  like  the  sound 
pf  a  bell.  Certain  waves  of  air  —  in  themselves  only  forms  of  mo- 
^on  —  produce  in  us  as  sound,  something  wholly  different  from  what 
they  themselves  are.  We  are  not  conscious  of  the  waves  of  air,  but 
only  of  the  efi^ect  produced  on  us.  This  will  show  what  science 
means  when  it  says  that  we  are  more  directly  certain  of  states  of  con- 
iciousness  than  of  states  of  matter.  351 


352  APPENDIX. 

In  ordinary  sleep,  the  fields  through  which  you  wander,  the  money 
you  handle,  the  fruit  you  eat,  the  trees  you  see  swayed  by  the  wind, 
the  people  you  meet,-  the  ocean  whose  bright  waves  break  on  the 
shore,  are  all  perfectly  real  to  you  in  dreams ;  and  you  think  they 
are  real  for  the  time  :  so  true  is  it  that  consciousness,  thought,  and 
sensation  are  more  immediately  real  to  us  than  matter. 

'•  Experience,"  says  John  Stuart  Mill,  "  furnishes  us  with  no  exam- 
ple of  any  series  of  states  of  consciousness"  without  '-a  material 
brain ;  but  it  is  as  easy  to  imagine  such  a  series  of  stat  3s  without  as 
with  this  accompaniment,  and  we  know  of  no  reason  in  the  nature  of 
things  against  tiie  possibihty  of  its  being  thus  disjoined."  He  even 
says,  "  We  may  suppose  that  the  same  thouglits.  emotions,  volitions, 
and  even  sensations  wliich  we  have  here,  may  persist  or  recommence 
somewhere  else  under  other  conditions."  This  is  all  we  ask,  and 
this  is  perfectly  scientific.  Sensation,  thought,  and  consciousness, 
are  all  in  ourselves,  and  are  absolutely  unlike  matter  in  all  their 
peculiarities.  In  our  present  state  they  may  be  excited  by  certain 
conditions  of  matter,  but  this  is  no  argument  against  the  possibility 
of  their  existing  independently  of  matter. 

There  is  talk  of  the  conveyance  of  mental  consciousness  by  ''brain- 
waves." What  does  it  matter  how  it  is  conveyed?  The  conscious- 
ness a  self  is  not  a  wave.  Truly  it  begins  to  look  as  though  an  eman- 
cipation and  not  a  destruction  might  come  with  the  separation  of  our 
mental  powers  from  fleshly  control. 

Our  five  senses  do  not  measure  the  boundless  reaches  of  being  far, 
far  beyond  our  ken.  The  greatest  of  all  illusions  is  the  common 
illusion  that  we  see,  hear,  and  touch  all  that  might  be  visible,  audi- 
ble, and  tangible.  What  we  call  tlie  solid  globe  itself  is  an  assem- 
blage of  atoms  inconceivably  small  —  so  small  that  no  eye  can  see, 
no  instrument  reveal  them.  What  we  call  the  vacant  air  is  filled 
with  light,  and  sound,  and  subtlest  flashing  forces,  flooding  every 
tiniest  space  with  music  and  beauty,  and  ever  flowing  energy.  It 
would  only  require  a  readjustment  of  our  senses  to  make  these  a  new 
heaven  and  a  new  earth  to  us. 

Huxley  says  that  "Astronomy  demonstrates  tliat  what  we  call  the 
peaceful  heavens  above  us  is  but  space,  filled  by  an  infinitely  subtile 
matter  whose  particles  are  seething  and  surging,  like  the  waves  of  an 
angry  sea."  And  yet  that  "  subtile  matter  "  is  so  rare  and  delicate 
that  the  rarest  known  gas  is  as  mud  in  comparison  with  it.  The 
difibrence  between  a  gas  and  a  so-called  solid  substance  is  only  tlie 
difference  of  atoms  more  or  less  close  together,  linked  by  some  cen- 
tral unseen  force. 

Thus  it  is  now  a  well-known  fact  of  science  that  multitudes  of  so- 
called  sounds,  and  objects  of  sight,  and  tangible  objects,  utterly 
elude  us,  simply  because  our  senses  are  not  fine  enough  to  be  recep- 
tive or  explanatory  as  to  them. 

There  is  nothing  corresponding  to  sound  in  what  produces  it.  Tyn- 
dall  tells  us  that  though  a  whole  park  of  artillery  were  discharged, 
the  only  result  would  be  a  disturbance  of  tlie  atmosphere,  and  not 
sound  at  all  unless  an  ear  and  a  mind  were  present  to  catch  tl  f. 
waves  of  motion  and  translate  them  into  sound. 

The  microphone  proves  the  presence  about  us  of  "innumerable 


APPENDIX.  353 


waves  of  sound,  so  slight  as  to  be  inaudible  to  us.  It  reveals  to  the 
ear  a  new  world,  even  as  the  microscope  has  opened  a  new  world  to 
the  eye.  Thus  our  external  senses  are  constructed  to  perceive  only 
an  infinitesimal  portion  of  the  sights  and  sounds  about  us.  So  it  is 
a  mere  a  priori  ]udgmer\t,  mere  folly  and  presumption,  to  pronounce 
of  anything  that  it  cannot  be." 

What  Tyndall  calls  the  "  luminiferous  ether  "  may  be  only  what  we 
know  as  atmosphere  in  a  more  subtile  state,  but  it  is  so  attenuated 
and  elastic  that  it  can  convey  the  vibrations  answering  to  light  at  a 
rate  of  about  200,000  miles  a  second.  Compared  with  that,  we,  in 
our  ordinary  atniosphere,  may  be  said  to  be  living  in  thick  mud. 
What  a  suggestion  have  we  here  as  to  an  unseen  universe,  ay,  and 
as  to  exquisitely  subtile  beings  living  in  it  their  refined  and  happy 
lives !  Thus  it  is  the  admission  of  the  most  advanced  science  that 
objects  and  even  organized  beings  may  exist  in  an  unseen  universe. 

The  other  senses  lead,  in  like  manner,  into  the  Unseen.  The 
gases  are  as  truly  matter  as  the  solid  metals  ;  and  hydrogen  is  as  much 
a  substance  as  iron :  and  yet  the  one  is  solid  to  our  touch,  and  the 
other  is  as  nothing  to  that  sense  :  and  the  gas  can  readily  pass 
through  the  metal  (just  as  a  spirit  may  pass  through  a  solid  wall). 
It  is  only  habit  and  the  limitation  of  our  sense  of  touch  that  lead  us 
to  think  of  matter  in  a  certain  subtile  condition  as  less  real  than 
denser  substances.  A  hand  that  could  pass  through  granite  is  scien- 
tifically conceivable.  Thus  there  is  nothing  in  a  spirit-hand  that  vio- 
lates a  purely  scientific  conception. 

So  again  with  the  sense  of  odor.  Odor  does  not  exist,  as  such,  till 
the  vibrating  particles  that  produce  it  reach  and  afiect  the  nerves 
and  brain.  "  Sensations,"  says  Huxley,  "  are,  in  the  strictest  sense, 
immaterial  entities.'"  Thus  even  now  and  here  we  belong  to  the 
Unseen. 

"  We  must  resort  to  the  unseen,"  say  Stewart  and  Tait,  "  not  only 
for  the  origin  of  the  molecules  of  the  visible  universe,  but  also  for  an 
explanation  of  the  forces  which  animate  these  moecules.  So  that 
we  are  compelled  to  conclude  that  every  motion  of  the  visible  uni- 
verse is  caused  by  the  unseen,  and  that  its  energy  is  ultimately  car- 
ried again  into  the  unseen."  Is  not  this  wonderfully  suggestive? 
What  if  the  intelligence,  the  personality,  that  are  here  grown  and 
developed,  pass  into  the  unseen  with  their  glorious  gains  } 

Everywhere  is  the  visible  produced  by  the  invisible.  All  the  glory 
of  leaf  and  flower,  whence  comes  it.?  Every  tint  of  color  and  essence 
of  odor  existed  first  in  the  Unseen.  And  what  is  true  for  us  and  our 
tiny  globe  we  may  reasonably  conclude  is  true  in  the  vast  universe 
beyond. 

Thus  we  arrive  by  the  steps  of  admitted  science  at  the  stupendous 
conclusion  that  the  Unseen  is  at  once  the  source,  receptacle,  and 
laboratory  of  energy  and  vitality  immeasurably  surpassing  anything 
within  the  present  experience  of  man. 

But  thought  itself  is  a  greater  mystery  than  the  existence  of  all 
these  finer  forms.  The  materialist  has  here  a  harder  problem  to 
solve  than  any  other  connected  with  an  unseen  universe.  "  We  are 
absolutely  driven,"  say  Stewart  and  Tait,  "by  scientific  principles 
to  acknowledge  the  existence  of  an  unseen  universe,  and  to  conclude 
23 


354  APPENDIX. 

that  it  is  full  of  life  and  intelligence  —  that  it  is  in  fact  a  spiritual 
universe  and  not  a  dead  one." 

With  every  advance  in  organization  there  is  a  corresponding  ad- 
vance in  mind.  The  inference,  the  longer  we  ponder  it,  becomes  the 
more  inevitable,  that  Life  and  Thought,  no  less  than  Matter,  though 
they  may  know  vast  changes  and  pass  into  higher  or  more  subtile 
forms  of  being,  are  destined  to  find  their  home  in  the  vast  Unseen. 
Thus  taking  the  universe  as  it  is,  and  adopting  the  principle  of  con- 
tinuity, the  process  leads  us  at  once  to  the  conception  of  an  invisible 
universe,  and  to  see  that  immortality  is  possible  without  a  break  of 
continuity. 

We  have  then  strictly  scientific  grounds  (apart  from  the  sufilcient 
proofs  given  in  Spiritualism)  that  even  now  the  psychical  part  of  man 
is  developing  powers  that  will  enable  it  to  survive  the  dissolution  of 
the  merely  pliysical  structure. 

The  great  laws  of  evolution,  continuity,  and  the  conservation  of 
force  combine  to  justify  the  inference  that  if  matter  persists  after  its 
dissolution  in  one  form,  reappearing  in  another,  so  too  will  mind, 
which,  though  ending  its  connection  with  matter  as  we  know  it,  may 
reappear  under  conditions  immeasurably  more  favorable  to  its  devel- 
opment and  delight. 

We  have  to  follow  matter  into  the  ethereal  regions  of  its  more  sub- 
tile modes  of  existence  ;  and  shall  we  not  follow  mind  also  into  those 
unseen  regions,  especially  Avhen  we  see  that  matter  everywhere 
seems  to  be  manipulated  and  directed  by  mind.? 

Imagine  the  life-principle  united  to  a  spiritual  body  as  subtile  and 
exquisite  as  itself,  and  having  its  sphere  of  activity  in  a  world  per- 
fectly adapted  to  its  own  sensitive,  ethereal  form  of  existence ;  — 
surely  you  would  there  have  everything  that  could  give  the  most 
thrilling  realization  of  life,  with  all  its  possibilities  of  progress  and 
of  joy.  ^ 

Ulrici  describes  the  soul  of  man  from  a  scientific  point  of  view  as 
a  refined,  continuous,  subtile  substance,  permeating  the  whole  ma- 
terial structure  of  the  body,  and  attaining  to  the  grade  of  spiritual 
being  because  it  has  attained  to  the  grade  of  conscious  and  intelligent 
existence.  It  is  then  this  spirit-body  which  goes  out  from  the  physi- 
cal body  at  death ;  for  death  is  an  orderly  stage  in  a  natural  pro- 
cess, and  only  dissolves  that  which  is  outermost,  in  order  that  the 
real  man  may  take  the  next  great  step  in  the  ceaseless  march  of  pro- 
gressive being. 

The  view  here  taken  of  the  Future  Life  makes  us  largely  the  de- 
terminers of  what  that  life  shall  be  to  us.  It  leaves  us  alone  with 
personal  character,  and  with  that  great  law  of  all  life,  "  Whatsoever 
a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap." 


Over-hasty  Charges  of  Fraud. —  (See  page  18.) 

When  Miss  Wood,  the  well-known  materializing  medium  of  New- 
castle, England,  visited  Macclesfield  in  1877,  she  was  denounced  by 
one  of  the  sitters  as  guilty  of  a  fraud.     The  Advertiser  of  that  place 


APPENDIX.  355 

defended  her  position  at  that  time,  and  it  now  states,  in  its  issue  of 
August  28  (1880),  that  the  gentleman  who  made  the  attack  called 
upon  the  editor  a  short  time  since  and  acknowledged  that  he  was  in 
error,  saying  he  would  make  a  confession  to  that  effect  to  Miss 
Wood  whenever  he  might  have  the  pleasure  of  meeting  her.  Many 
other  charges  of  fraud,  brought  without  proper  discrimination,  have 
had  a  similar  issue. 


Direct    Writing.  —  (See  page  35.) 

Almost  daily,  while  revising  this  work  for  the  press,  new  testi- 
mony has  come  to  me,  justifying  my  adoption  of  the  two  great  facts 
of  direct  writing  and  clairvoyance  as  typical  proofs  of  the  funda- 
mental truth  of  Spiritualism,  and  presenting  a  truly  scientific  basis. 

Mr.  G.  B.  Stebbins,  of  Detroit,  Mich.,  author  of  "After  Dogmatic 
Theology  —  What?  "  (1880,)  and  other  much  esteemed  works,  —  a 
gentleman  most  favorably  known  to  me  personally,  —  was  present  at 
a  new  and  interesting  manifestation  of  pneumatography,  or  spirit- 
writing,  at  the  camp-meeting  at  Cassadaga  Lake,  N.  Y.,  August  21, 
1880.  The  medium  was  Mr.  R.  W.  Saur,  of  Titusville,  Pa.,  a  Ger- 
man some  thirty  years  of  age,  and,  according  to  Mr.  Stebbins,  "  an 
intelligent,  sincere,  anJl  devoted  man."  ]\Ir.  Stebbins's  testimony  is 
publislied  in  the  Religio- Philosophical  Journal  of  Sept.  4,  1880. 
He  and  Mr.  0.  P.  Kellogg  saw  two  clean  slates  tied  together.  The 
medium,  apparently  "under  a  strong  influence,"  satin  a  chair  be- 
fore an  audience  of  two  hundred  persons.  He  held  the  slates  on  the 
outspread  fingers  of  his  extended  hand,  while  Messrs.  Stebbins, 
Kellogg,  and  several  other  witnesses  stood  by,  "hearing  distinctly 
the  scratching  of  the  bit  of  pencil  inside,  as  it  rapidly  traced  the  let- 
ters, —  the  dotting  and  strokes  being  easily  heard." 

The  slates  were  turned  over  by  the  medium's  hand  as  one  side 
seemed  full,  and  then  the  pencil  moved  rapidly  on,  and  he  soon 
handed  the  slates  to  Mr.  Kellogg,  but  took  them  back,  saying  (prob- 
ably under  influence  of  the  communicating  spirit),  "  I  will  write  the 
name."  Mr.  Stebbins  says  :  "  We  heard  the  pencil  again  a  moment^ 
and  then  opened  the  slates  to  find  the  following  message  clearly 
written.     I  copy  it  exactly,  punctuation  and  all : 

"  Friends  of  Progress  :  I  am  glad  to  be  here,  and  much  pleased  to  write 
this.  I  thought  it  was  a  good  opportunity  for  this  large  assemblage  to  prove 
what  has  often  been  done/  the  immortality  of  tlie  soul.  Now  I  welf  know  that 
some  will  dispute  this /ac^,  but  what  if  they  do?  I  know  the  world  is  still 
quite  full  of  these,  on  this  point,  respectable  ignoramuses.  I  will  close  by 
stating  one  fact.  Friends,  depend  on  my  veracity,  I  tell  you  most  emphat- 
Ical,  the  Spirit-world  is  peopled  from  our  world,  and  they  cannot  depend  upon 
another  man's  light  for  their  salvation.  They  must  not  only  believe  and  know 
for  themselves,  but  they  must  do  the  loork  for  themselves.  Do  right,  be  true 
and  good,  that  is  what  counts.  Truly  yours,  H.  H^  Rouse." 

The  rest  of  Mr.  Stebbins's  testimony  is  as  follows  : 
"I  at  once  read  this  to  the  audience,  and  Mr.  Kellogg  said  to  me, 
'  A  Mr.  Rouse,  from  Titusville,  whom  I  knew  well,  the  chief  of  po- 
lice in  that  city   and  the  brother  of  this  H.  H.  Rouse,  who  left  the 


356  APPENDIX. 


earth  some  few  years  ago,  is  here.  I  will  find  him.'  He  found  him 
near  the  door  where  he  had  been  standing,  showed  him  the  slate-writ- 
ing, and  he  at  once  said,  with  tears  in  liis  eyes,  '  That  is  from  my 
brotlier,'  and  took  from  his  packet  a  letter,  the  last  he  had  from  that 
brother,  not  long  before  his  death,  compared  the  writing,  and  fou.nd 
that  on  the  slates  a  good  fac-simile,  the  signature  being  especially 
perfect.  He  loaned  us  the  letter,  and  on  careful  examination  I  call 
the  slate-writing  an  excellent /ac-sr/mZe." 

To  this,  Dr.  A.  B.  Spinney  adds,  under  date  of  August  22,  1880, 
"I  heartily  indorse  the  above  statement,  as  I  have  seen  the  slate- 
writing  and  the  letter,  and  they  "  (in  their  chirography)  "  are  exactly 
alike." 

Mr.  E.  A.  Chapman,  of  Lowell,  Mich.,  writes  (July  26,  1880): 
"  Henry  Slade  now  gets  tlie  direct  writing  while  the  two  slates  hang 
suspended  from  a  gas-jet.  He  allows  any  one  to  bring  his  or  her 
slates,  or  to  select  from  a  pile  of  his  own,  tie  and  suspend  them 
from  the  gas-jet,  take  them  down,  untie  and  read  them.  —  he  never 
touching  the  slate  at  all ;  or  he  will  permit  the  slates  to  be  held  in  the 
hands  of  the  sitters,  tlie  writing  coming  or  being  produced  under 
those  conditions  —  he  not  touching  the  slates  —  the  scratching  of  the 
pencil  inside  invariably  being  heard,  and  corresponding  to  the 
message." 

Since  there  is  nothing  "  so  brutally  conclusive  as  a  fact,"  how  long 
do  Messieurs  the  "scientists"  expect  to  make  a  stand  against  facts 
like  these? 


Guldenstiihhe  and  Direct  Writing.  —  (See  page  46.) 

In  the  Paris  Revue  Spirite  for  July,  1880,  is  an  interesting  account 
from  the  pen  of  M.  Leymarie  of  a  visit  to  Versailles,  made  by  Baron 
Guldenstubbe,  by  order  of  the  spirits.  He  was  required  to  go  with 
certain  lad.es  named,  whom  he  was  to  invite,  and  evidently  for  a 
special  purpose.  While  in  the  gallery  at  Versailles  tlie  Bishop  of 
Orleans,  M.  Dupanloup,  passed  on  his  way  to  celebrate  Mass  in  the 
chapel.  Knowing  the  ladies  referred  to  above  he  stopped  and  ad- 
dressed them,  and  also  the  Baron,  to  whom  he  expressed  his  regrets 
that  he  adhered  to  a  strange  faith  and  one  hostile  to  the  Church;  that 
he  was  a  follower  in  fact  of  Luther,  who  would  suffer  in  purgatory 
for  the  division  he  had  caused  in  said  church. 

The  Baron  replied  that  he  did  not  think  that  Luther  was  in  purga- 
tory or  in  hell,  and  that  as  a  proof  of  it,  if  the  Bishop  would  place 
a  blank  piece  of  paper  on  Luther's  portrait,  tliere  would  come  some 
evidence  of  his  (the  Baron's)  belief.  The  Bishop  tore  a  piece  of 
paper  from  his  register  and  placed  it  as  suggested.  After  a  few  mo- 
ments he  took  it  down  and  found  written  upon  it : 

"  In  vita  peatis  eram  Papje, 
In  morte  mors  ero.  —  Luther." 

("  Living  I  was  a  pest  to  the  Pope ;  dead,  I  will  be  his  death.")    They 
were  all  greatly  astonished.     The  Bishop  extended  his  hand  to  the 


APPENDIX.  357 

Baron  and  his  sisters  (both  mediums),  asking  permission  to  visit 
them  in  Paris.  The  permission  was  obtained,  and  he  frequently 
availed  himself  of  it  subsequently. 

Robert  Dale  Owen  testified  that  he  accompanied  tlic  Baron  and  his 
sister  Julia  to  various  chapels  in  Paris;  that  he  (Owen)  laid  down 
sheets  of  his  own  paper,  witljout  pencil  or  writing-materials  ;  that, 
retiring  a  few  paces,  but  never  losing  sight  of  the  paper,  he  found  an 
intelligent  message  written  upon  -it  in  every  case- 
Professor  W.  Stainton-Moses  tells  us  that  for  five  years  up  to  the 
year  1878,  he  had  been  familiar  with  the  phenomenon  of  direct  writ- 
ing. This  had  occurred  both  in  the  presence  of  recognized  psychics 
known  to  the  public,  and  of  ladies  and  gentlemen  in  private,,  who 
possess  the  power  and  readily  procure  t!ie  result.  "■  In  the  course  of 
these  observations,"  he  says,  "I  have  seen  psychographs  obtained 
in  closed  and  locked  boxes  as  in  the  case  of  Baron  Guldenstubbe; 
on  paper  previously  marked  and  placed  in  a  special  position,  from 
which  it  was  not  moved ;  on  paper  marked  and  put  under  the  table, 
so  as  to  get  the  assistance  of  darkness ;  on  paper  on  which  my  elbow 
rested,  and  on  paper  covered  by  my  hand;  on  pai)er  enclosed  in  a 
sealed  envelope;  and  on  slates  securely  tied  together."  See  "  Psy- 
chography,  by  M.  A.  Oxon."    Boston:  Colby  &  llich. 


Testimony  of  Dr.  T.  L.  JS'lchols.  —  (See  page  83.) 

Among  the  most  experienced  students  of  Spiritualism  is  Dr.  T.  L. 
Nichols,  now  of  32  Fopstone  lioad.  Earl's  Court,  London,  S.  W.,  the 
author  of  several  physiological  works  of  great  value.  More  than  two 
years  ago  I  received  from  him  the  following  letter  (now  for  the  first 
time  published),  dated  London,  June  26,  1878,  and  written  in  reply 
to  some  inquiries  of  mine  : 

"  My  mother  was  a  Boston  woman,  my  father  came  from  Cohasset, 
and  they  Avent,  during  the  war  of  1812-14,  to  Orford,  N.  H.,  where 
I  was  born  in  1815.  I  attended  my  first  course  of  medical  lectures  at 
Dartmouth  College,  1834,  but  drifted  into  journalism,  and  only  com- 
pleted my  course  and  took  my  diploma  at  the  New  York  University 
in  1850.  Since  then  I  have  been  rather  a  medical  writer  and  sanitary 
reformer  than  a  medical  practitioner.  I  knew  you  by  sight  when 
you  had  your  office  in  Fulton  Street,  New  York.*  Coming  to  England 
in  1861, 1  was  for  ten  years  a  correspondent  of  the  New  Vork  Times, 
and  also,  to  some  extent,  a  contributor  to  English  periodical  litera- 
ture. You  will  find  my  name  in  the  list  of  contributors  to  Cham- 
bers's Encyclopaedia.  My  most  important  works  in  England,  if  I  may 
use  such  a  term  in  regard  to  any  of  them,  are  my  '  Forty  Years  of 
American  Life,'  and  '  Human  Physiology  the  Basis  of  Sanitary  and 
Social  Science.' 

"  I  saw  something  of  Spiritualism  in  America,  and  had  in  New 
York,  and  later  in  Oiiip,  the  most  positive  and  convincing  evidence 
of  the  existence  of  spirits  and  the  genuineness  of  what  are  called 
*  spiritual  manifestations.' 

"During  the  past  year  Mr.  W.  Eglinton.  a    young  Englishman 


858  APPENDIX. 


about  twenty  years  old,  and  a  very  powerful  physical  medium,  has 
been  a  member  of  my  family.  He  first  came  to  Malvern  as  a  patient, 
and  has  been  with  us.  in  Malvern  and  London,  ever  since.  I  have 
had,  I  think,  about  fifty  seances  with  him,  attended  in  most  cases 
only  by  members  of  my  own  fiimily,  and  sometimes  intimate  friends. 
I  have  applied  many  tests,  and  satisfied  myself,  beyond  all  doubt, 
of  the  individuality  of  the  spirits  whom  we  have  seen  and  felt,  and 
talked  with  for  many  hours. 

"  I  have  m  my  possession  direct  writings  and  drawings  done  un- 
der  ahsolute  test  conditions  by  departed  spirits  with  whose  handwrit- 
ing 1  am  familiar  as  with  my  own.  I  have  an  endless  cord  — that 
is,  one  I  carefully  tied  and  sealed  —  which,  while  my  hand  rested  on 
the  seal,  had  five  knots  tied  in  it.  I  have  had  the  observation  of 
matter  passing  through  matter,  in  a  chair  being  'threaded'  upon  the 
arm,  while  the  hand  firmly  clasped  another's  hand,  seven  times  — 
and  tested  the  fact  by  tying  the  two  wrists  together  with  fine  thread, 
and  by  myself  holding  the  other  hand. 

"  The  last  materializations  I  have  seen  were  a  few  days  ago  at 
Malvern,  in  my  own  garden  in  the  summer  twilight,  when  every  ob- 
ject was  distinctly  visible.  There  was  no  cabinet.  The  medium, 
Mr.  Eglinton,  lay  on  a  garden  bench  in  plain  sight.  We  saw  tlie 
bodies  of  our  visitors  form  themselves  from  a  cloud  of  Avhite 
vapor,  and  then  walk  about,  robed  all  in  purest  white,  upon  the 
lawn  where  no  deception  was'  possible.  One  of  them  walked  quite 
around  us,  as  we  sat  in  our  chairs  on  the  grass,  talking  as  famil- 
iarly as  any  friend.  Arthur  Hildreth.  son  of  the  late  Richard  Ilil- 
dreth,  the  historian,  and  his  wife,  sat  beside  me,  while  Mrs.  Nichols 
sat  on  a  stone  balcony  some  twenty  yards  distant.  This  was  ail  our 
party. 

'•  The  'sheeted  ghost,'  whose  fine  white  drapery  we  had  seen  made 
from  a  white  vapor  before  our  eyes,  came  round  behind  me,  to(}k 
my  hat  from  my  head,  put  it  on  his  own,  and  walked  off  with  it  to 
where  the  medium  was  lying;  then  he  came  and  put  it  on  my  head 
again;  then  walked  across  the  lawn  and  up  a  gravel  walk  to  the  foot 
of  the  balcony  and  talked  with  JMrs.  Nichols.  After  a  brief  conver- 
sation he  returned  to  the  medium  and  gradually  faded  from  sight. 

"I  have  known  this  '  ghost'  for  more  than  a  year,  and  can  have 
no  possible  doubt  that  he  is  what  he  strongly  asserts  himself  to  be, 
as  distinct  an  individuality  as  I  am  myself. 

"  1  have  to  say,  then,  that,  with  some  pretensions  to  science,  with 
the  training  in  accurate  observation  of  a  practised  journalist,  and  an 
experience  of  spiritualistic  phenomena  running  through  some  twenty- 
five  years,  I  cannot  see  that  any  facts  are  established  by  stronger  proof 
than  the  existence  of  indivitlual  human  spirits,  who  liave  been  sepa- 
rated from  th?ir  earthly  bodies,  but  who  have,  under  certain  condi- 
tions, the  power  of  giving  us  evidence  of  their  existence  by  signs, 
writings,  speech,  and  the  assumption  of  visible  and  tangible  bodily 
forms. 

"  You  are  quite  welcome  to  make  any  use  of  my  testimony  in  this 
matter.  I  cannot  make  it  too  strong.  The  intelligence  of  the  spirits 
with  whom  I  have  conversed  is  not  dependent  upon,  or  limited  by, 
that  of  the  mediufn,  or  of  any  one  in  the  ci7xle.     They  do  things  im- 


APPENDIX.  359 

possible  to  be  done  —  they  know  things  impossible  to  be  known  — 
by  and  to  those  to  whom  they  come. 

"The  theories  of  those  wlio  wish  to  banish  spirits  from  Spiritual- 
ism may  be  ever  so  ingenious,  but  they  do  not  meet  the  facts.  I  da 
not  doubt  your  existence  though  I  cannot  identify  your  handwriting; 
but  I  have  several  letters  from  a  young  lady  who  died  in  1864,  the 
handwriting  of  which  I  can  prove  by  many  witnesses. 

"  Wishing  you  every  success  in  your  good  work,  I  remain, 
Faithfully  yours, 

"  T.  L.  Nichols,  M.D." 

"Epes  Sargent,  Esq." 


The  Witchcraft  Excitement.  —  (See  page  101.) 

Dr.  W.  B.  Carpenter,  in  his  work  against  Spiritualism,  tells  us 
that  "in  1658  a  woman  was  hung  at  Chard  Assizes  for  having  be- 
witched a  boy  twelve  years  old,  who  was  seen  to  rise  in  the  air  and 
pass  some  thirty  yards  over  a  garden  wall ;  while  at  another  time  lie 
was  found  in  a  room  with  his  hands  flat  against  a  beam  at  the  top, 
and  his  body  two  or  three  feet  above  the  floor,  —  nine  people  at  a 
time  seeing  him  in  this  position." 

Is  it  not  lamentable  to  see  men  of  the  present  day,  with  scientific 
pretensions,  trying  to  explain  away  a  simple  case  of  levitation,  testi- 
fied to  by  nine  sane  witnesses,  by  the  theory  that  the  witnesses  were 
"prepossessed,"  hallucinated,  and  made  imbecile  by  their  failure  to 
cultivate  "scientific  habits  of  thought " ;  that  "they  first  s-urren- 
dered  themselves,  without  due  inquiry,  to  a  disposition  to  believe  in 
occult  agencies ;  and  having  so  surrendered  themselves,  they  inter- 
preted everything  in  accordance  with  that  belief." 

And  we  are  to  accept  this  as  explaining  why  nine  persons  in  a  case 
of  life  and  death,  testified  to  seeing  what,  according  to  the  Carpen- 
terian  superstition,  they  did  not  see  and  could  not  have  seen ! 


Mocking  Spirits.  —  (See  page  103.) 

Among  the  fully  authenticated  spirit  phenomena  of  the  last  thirty 
years,  those  which  took  place  in  the  house  of  the  Eev.  Mr. 
Phelps,  at  Stratford,  Conn.,  in  1851,  were  among  the  most  remarka- 
ble. That  some  of  them  were  by  mocking  or  mischievous  spirits  is 
not  improbable.  Spirit-writing,  without  visible  human  agency,  was 
among  the  early  occurrences  at  Hydesville,  Rochester,  and  Auburn ; 
and  it  was  a  common  phenomenon  at  Stratford.  Sometimes  these 
spirit-writings  would  be  enclosed  in  a  book  and  thrown  down ;  some- 
times wrapped  about  a  key  or  nail,  or  anything  that  would  give  a  mo- 
mentum, and  thrown  into  the  room.  Often  they  were  seen  to  fall 
from  above ;  this  occurring  frequently  when  the  doors  were  closed, 
and  it  was  not  possible  for  any  visible  agent  to  have  been  the  cause. 
Writing  would  appear  on  the  wall  at  times,  made,  as  it  appeared,  with 
a  pencil.     On  one  occasion  Dr.  Phelps  was  writing  at  his  desk,  and, 


S60  APPENDIX. 


turning  his  back  for  a  few  moments,  without  leaving  his  chair,  turned 
again  to  his  paper,  where  he  found  written  in  large  letters,  "Very 
nice  paper  and  very  nice  ink  for  the  devil."  The  ink  was  not  yet 
dry,  the  desk  was  not  two  feet  from  the  Doctor  as  he  sat,  and  he  was 
certain  that  he  was  entirely  alone  in  the  room.  Many  mocking  mes- 
sages were  written  ;  some  of  them  bearing  hard  on  Dr.  Phelps's  Cal- 
vinistic  views.     He  wrote  me  confirming  these  facts. 

Phantom  Forms. —  (See  page  115.) 

"William  Crookes,  F.R.S.,  testifies  that  on  one  occasion,  Mr. 
Home  being  the  medium,  "a  phantom  form  came  from  the  corner  of 
the  room,  took  an  accordion  in  its  hand,  and  then  glided  about  the 
room,  playing  tlie  instrument.  The  form  was  visible  to  all  present 
for  many  minutes,  Mr.  Home  also  being  seen  at  the  same  time. 
Coming  rather  close  to  a  lady  who  was  sitting  apart  from  the  rest  of 
the  company,  she  gave  a  slight  cry,  upon  which  it  vanished." 


Testimony  of  Professional  Conjurers.  —  (See  p.  130.) 

Dr.  W.  B.  Carpenter  has  often  referred  to  professional  conjurers 
as  "trained  experts ;  "  but  when  they  go  against  his  prepossessions 
their  testimony  is  worthless  in  his  estimation.  I  have  instanced  the 
names  of  several  of  these.  INIr.  T.  A.  Trollope  informs  us  that  an- 
other celebrated  conjurer,  Bosco,  "utterly  scouted  the  idea  of  such 
phenomena  as  were  produced  by  Mr.  Home  being  performed  by  any 
of  the  resources  of  the  juggling  art;"  and,  lastly.  Lord  Rayleigh 
informed  Mr.  Wallace  that  he  took  a  professional  conjurer  to  Dr. 
Slade's,  and  that  the  phenomena  happened  with  considerable  perfec- 
tion, while  "the  conjurer  could  not  form  the  remotest  idea  as  to  how 
the  effects  were  produced." 

Jacobs,  from  whom  I  have  quoted  (p.  130),  has  written  a  letter  to 
the  Scientific  Society  for  Psychological  Studies  at  Paris,  announcing 
his  adhesion  to  the  spiritual  theory  of  the  manifestations. 


Clairvoyance.  —  (See  page  133.) 

"  If  ordinary  vision  were  as  rare  as  clairvoyance,"  says  A.  R.  Wal- 
lace, "  it  would  be  just  as  difficult  to  prove  its  reality  as  it  is  now  to 
establish  the  reality  of  this  wonderful  power.  The  evidence  in  its 
favor  is  absolutely  conclusive  to  any  one  who  will  examine  it,  and 
who  is  not  deluded  by  that  most  unphilosophical  dogma  that  he 
knows  a  priori  what  is  possible  and  what  is  impossible." 

Wallace  and  Darwin,  —  (See  page  143.) 

Alfred  R.  Wallace,  the  distinguished  naturalist,  who  shares  with 
Darwin  the  honor  of  originating  the  theory  of  natural  selection,  gives 


APPENDIX.  361 

this  brief  definition  of  Darwinism  :  "  It  is  the  theory  of  the  origin  of 
the  countless  species  of  plants  and  animals  from  ancestral  forms  by 
means  of  natural  selection."  In  a  communication  to  that  indefati- 
gable and  eloquent  proclaimer  of  the  truths  of  Spiritualism,  James  M. 
Teebles,  Mr.  Wallace  writes  :  "  Darwinism  may  be  true  as  far  as  it 
goes,  but  not  be  the  whole  truth.  Darwin's  laws  of  natural  selection 
and  variation  are  true  laws,  which  will  account  for  much  —  perliaps 
for  all  —  the  material  organizations  of  plants  and  animals.  He  ad- 
mits an  influx  of  life  from  the  Creator  at  first.  I  think  an  influx  of 
a  higher  life  occurred  when  man  appeared.  He  does  not  think  this 
necessary.  This  is  the  real  difference  between  us."  The  italics  are 
those  of  Mr.  Wallace  himself. 


Identity  of  Spirits.  —  (See  page  184.) 

My  friend.  Professor  Wm.  Stainton-Moses,  of  London,  who  to 
medial  sensitiveness  both  as  regards  mental  and  physical  phenomena 
unites  high  intellectual  gifts  and  thorough  collegiate  culture,  has 
studied  carefully  the  subject  of  "  Spirit  Identity,"  and  written  an 
excellent  little  work  on  the  subject,  which  I  commend  to  those  who 
still  doubt  whether  there  have  been  evidences  of  spirit- identity.  On 
page  50  he  says  :  "  For  a  long  time  I  failed  in  getting  the  evidence 
I  wanted ;  and  if  I  had  done  as  most  investigators  do,  I  should  have 
abandoned  the  quest  in  despair  or  disgust.  My  state  of  mind  was 
too  positive ;  and  I  was  forced,  moreover,  to  take  some  personal 
pains  before  I  obtained  what  I  desired.  Bit  by  bit,  here  a  little  and 
there  a  little,  by  steps  which  I  do  not  detail  here,  that  evidence  came, 
and  as  my  mind  opened  to  receive  it,  ^  ^me  six  months  were  spent  in 
persistent  daily  eflbrts  to  bring  home  t^  me  proof  of  the  perpetuated 
existence  of  human  spirits,  and  of  their  power  to  communicate  with 
me  and  give  evidence  of  their  unimpaired  individuality,  and  of  the 
unbroken  continuity  of  their  existence." 


Formation  of  the  Spirit-Hand. — (See  page  197.) 

Dr.  J.  Garth  Wilkinson,  of  London,  well  known  as  an  eminent 
physician  and  the  erudite  translator  of  some  of  Swedenborg's  writ- 
ings, once  saw  a  spirit-hand  at  a  circle  of  inquirers,  and  requested 
that  it  might  be  laid  on  his  forehead.     He  thus  describes  the  result : 

"  This  was  deliberately  done,  and  I  felt  the  thrilling  impression  as 
the  palm  was  laid  flat  upon  my  brow,  where  it  remained  for  several 
seconds.  During  the  interval  in  which  I  felt  it,  I  had  abundant  op- 
portunity of  examining  most  closely  the   arm  and  fore-arm 

Bending  over  as  I  did  to  the  vacant  rim  of  the  table,  I  saw  how  the 
arm  terminated,  —  apparently  in  a  graceful  cascade  of  drapery ;  mucli 
as  though  an  arm  was  put  through  the  peak  of  a  snuwy  tent,  the 
apex  of  which  thus  fell  around  the  shoulder  on  every  side.  On  leav- 
ing my  forehead,  the  arm  at  once  disappeared,  and  I  watched  it  go. 
It  was  drawn  into  the  same  drapery,  but  so  naively  that  I  can  only 


362  APPENDIX. 

liken  it  to  a  fountain  falling  down  again,  and  ceasing  into  the  bosom 
of  the  water  from  which  it  rose." 

Eugene  Nus,  author  of  "  Choses  de  V autre  Monde"  (Paris,  1880), 
testifies  to  having  seen  a  luminous  hand  lift  a  musical  box  from  a 
table,  carry  it  about  the  room  and  up  to  the  ceiling,  and  then  place 
it  under  a  bed.  The  same  thing  happened  with  a  bell,  which  was 
agitated  in  the  air,  carried  rapidly  to  the  extremities  of  the  room,  and 
then  at  his  request  brought  and  deposited  in  his  own  hand.  The  light 
was  so  subdued  as  to  make  the  luminosity  of  the  phantom-hand  ap- 
parent. 


Spirit-Photography,  —  (See  page  204.) 

In  reference  to  the  possibility  of  photographing  the  forms  pre- 
sented by  spirits,  Mr.  A.  R.  Wallace  remarks  :  "We  are  in  a  posi- 
tion to  state,  not  only  that  it  has  been  frequently  done,  but  that  the 
evidence  is  of  such  a  nature  as  to  satisfy  any  one  who  will  take  the 
trouble  carefully  to  examine  it."  After  presenting  this  evidence,  he 
adds:  "We  find,  then,  that  three  amateur  photographers,  working 
independently  in  different  parts  of  England,  separately  confirm  the 
fact  of  spirit-photography  —  already  demonstrated  to  the  satisfaction 
of  many  who  had  tested  it  through  professional  photographers.  The 
experiments  of  Mr.  Beattie  and  Dr.  Thomson  are  alone  absolutely 
conclusive :  and,  taken  in  connection  with  those  of  Mr.  Slater  and 
Dr.  Williams,  and  the  test  photographs,  like  those  of  Mrs.  Guppy, 
establish  as  a  scientific  fact  the  objective  existence  of  invisible  hu- 
man forms,  and  definite,  invisible,  actinic  images." 

Referring  to  the  series  of  other  physical  phenomena,  Mr.  Wallace 
says  :  "They  form  a  connected  body  of  evidence,  from  the  simplest 
to  the  most  complex  and  astounding,  every  single  component  fact 
of  which  can  be  and  has  been  repeatedly  demonstrated  by  itself; 
while  each  gives  weight  and  confirmation  to  all  the  rest.  They  have 
all,  or  nearly  all,  been  before  the  world  for  twenty  (thirty- three) 
years ;  the  theories  and  explanations  of  reviewers  and  critics  do  not 
touch  them,  or  in  any  way  satisfy  any  sane  man  who  has  repeatedly 
witnessed  them." 

"  My  position,  therefore,  is,  that  the  phenomena  of  Spiritualism  in 
their  entirety  do  not  require  further  confirmation.  Tliey  are  proved 
quite  as  well  as  any  facts  are  proved  in  other  sciences;  and  it  is  not 
denial  or  quibbling  that  can  disprove  any  of  them,  but  only  fresh 
facts  and  accurate  deductions  from  those  facts."  If  all  this  was  true 
in  1874,  what  an  amount  of  evidence  in  confirmation  has  accumu- 
lated up  to  the  year  1880 ! 


Robert  H.  Colhjer,  M.D,  —  (See  page  215.) 

The  Dr.  Collyer  here  referred  to  published  in  London,  in  1876,  a 
pamphlet  entitled  "Automatic  Waiting;  the  Slade  Prosecution; 
Vindication  of  the  Truth;"  in  which  he  writes:  "Mr.   Slade  has 


APPENDIX.  363 

presented  to  myself  phenomena  which  are  not  susceptible  of  any 
explanation  based  on  trickery  or  fraud.  Being  thoroughly  convinced 
that  the  phenomena  are  genuine,  I  should  be  alike  untrue  to  my  own 
sense  of  independence,  truth,  and  honor,  if  I  did  not  vindicate  his 
honesty  of  purpose."  As  Dr.  Colly er  was  not  a  Spiritualist,  this 
testimony  may  carry  all  the  more  weight  with  the  skeptical. 


Phenomena  through  Mrs.  Mowatt.  —  (See  page  224.) 

In  the  account  of  the  phenomena  through  Mrs.  Mowatt,  want  of 
space  compelled  me  to  omit  many  facts  of  interest.  Having,  under 
her  own  prescriptions  while  somnambulic,  been  restored  to  a  state  of 
vigorous  health,  she  went  upon  the  stage  to  retrieve  the  pecuniary 
fortunes  of  her  husband.  The  late  Edward  L.  Davenport,  the 
American  actor,  whom  I  had  known  from  my  youth  up,  became  ac- 
quainted with  her  professionally,  and  when  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Mowatt 
were  going  to  try  their  fortunes  in  England,  he  accompanied  them. 
Before  their  departure  I  imparted  to  him,  by  the  direction  of  Mrs. 
Mowatt  in  her  somnambulic  state,  all  the  information  that  would 
enable  him  to  induce  somnambulism  in  her  in  case  she  should  fall 
ill.  He  also  had  several  interviews  with  the  "gypsy,"  as  she  called 
her  higher  self,  before  they  sailed.  Early  in  my  mesmeric  experi- 
ences with  her  a  puzzle  arose  which  I  thus  expressed  to  her  while 
somnambulic:  "You  always  speak  of  your  lower  self  in  the  third 
person,  and  you  never  speak  of  your  present  self  in  the  first,  and 
you  object  to  being  addressed  by  either  your  Christian  or  surname. 
How  shall  I  call  you?"  "Call  me  gypsy ,"  &\\q  replied.  "Then  I 
suppose  we  must  give  a  corresponding  name  to  your  waking  self. 
Since  she  does  many  things  that  you  disapprove  of,  suppose  we  call 
her  simpleton  ? "  At  this  she  clapped  her  hands  in  glee,  and  said, 
"Nothing  could  le  more  apt."  So  the  distinctions  were  adopted, 
and  the  two  names  were  ever  afterward  seriously  used,  though  not 
when  she  was  in  her  normal  state. 

In  the  Chicago  Inter-  Ocean  for  January,  1880,  appears  an  account 
by  an  "interviewer"  of  the  information  imparted  by  the  widow  of 
my  old  friend  Davenport  in  regard  to  the  mesmerization  of  Mrs. 
Mowatt  in  London.  Mr.  Mowatt  had  been  ordered  to  Jamaica  by 
his  physician,  and  had  requested  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Davenport  to  go  and 
occupy  his  rooms,  that  Mrs.  Mowatt  might  have  the  benefit  of  their 
care.  Mrs.  Mowatt  fell  ill,  and  was  made  somnambulic  that  she 
might  prescribe  for  herself.  The  following  is  Mrs.  Davenport's 
account  of  what  occurred :  — 

"  Throughout  she  called  herself  '  Gypsy.'  She  referred  to  her 
former  self  as  '  Simpleton,'  or  more  frequently  as  '  Simpy,'  and  her 
voice  acquired  a  peculiarly  wide-awake  tone.  She  never  opened  her 
eyes,  but  could  write  equally  well,  and,  by  placing  a  sealed  letter  on 
her  forehead,  would  reveal  the  contents.  Of  course  this  event,  in 
epite  of  our  efforts,  became  noised  about,  and  attracted  much  com- 
ment, especially  from  the  medical  profession. 

"  '  Did  any  eminent  physicians  visit  her?  ' 

"  '  Yes  ;  it  happened  that  during  this  time  my  daughter  Fanny  waa 


364  APPENDIX. 


born,  and  the  well-known  Dr.  Westmacott,  a  nephew  of  the  famous 
sculptor,  was  in  attendance  upon  me.  One  day  he  jokingly  inquired, 
'  What  is  all  this  I  hear  about  your  clairvoyant  patient  ? '  I  told  him 
the  truth,  and,  of  course,  as  he  believed  in  nothing  of  the  kind,  he 
pooh-poohed.  A  little  out  of  patience,  I  asked  him  if  he  would  see 
her,  and  he  promised  to  on  condition  that  I  would  not  mention  his 
name  or  possible  call.  A  week  or  two  afterward  he  came  to  vacci- 
nate Fanny,  and  after  it  was  over  I  asked  him  to  go  up  stairs  with 
me.  When  he  reached  the  upper  hall,  I  motioned  him  to  wait,  and 
advanced  to  the  door  of  the  room ;  but  almost  before  I  entered,  Mrs. 
Mowatt  called  out,  in  her  clear,  bird-like  voice,  "Fanny  dear,  you 
can  bring  your  doctor  in  with  you."  ' 

"  I  assure  you  we  were  both  astonished.  When  he  advanced  to 
the  bedside,  she  said,  'Oh,  you  do  not  believe;  you  doubt;  but 
Grypsy  will  prove  strange  things  to  you.'  Dr.  Westmacott  replied, 
pleasantly,  '  No,  you  are  right ;  I  do  not  believe,  but  I  am  open  to 
conviction  ;  but,'  he  concluded,  laughing,  '  it  would  be  a  sorry  truth 
for  a  physician  to  find  his  patients  able  to  take  care  of  and  pre- 
scribe for  themselves,  as  they  say  you  do.' 

"The  doctor  then  seated  himself,  and  began  questioning  her, 
when  she  interrupted  him  by  crying  out  eagerly,  as  a  child  might, 
'  Ah,  doctor,  you  have  something  in  your  coat-pocket  for  me  ;  give  it 
to  me  quickly.  I  want  to  see  it.'  The  doctor  looked  disconcerted 
for  a  moment,  but  replied,  '  You  are  quite  right ;  I  have  a  package 
for  you,  and  if,  without  opening  your  eyes  or  the  package,  you  can 
tell  me  what  it  contains,  1  will  believe,  at  least,  that  you  are  not 
humbugging  us  all.' 

"  So  saying,  he  drew  from  his  coat-pocket  a  flat  package,  heavily 
wrapped  in  thick,  brown  paper,  securely  tied  and  sealed  with  wax. 
W^itiiout  hesitating,  Mrs.  Mowatt,  her  fair  face  shining  with  intelli- 
gence, took  hold  of  the  package  and  placed  it  against  her  forehead. 
In  a  moment  she  exclaimed,  '  O  what  a  strange  old  man !  he  looks 
like  a  Jew,  and  leans  heavily  on  his  stick.  He  is  very  old ;  his  iiair 
and  beard  are  white'—' 

"  'That  will  do,'  said  Dr.  Westmacott,  who  had  actually  changed 
color,  and  he  tore  open  the  package,  disclosing  a  photograph  of  Ru- 
bens's  famous  painting  of  '  The  Jew.'  He  then  subjected  her  to  a 
number  of  other  tests,  with  the  same  result,  and  when  he  left  said 
tliat  while  he  could  not  propagate  such  a  doctrine,  he  could  never 
ridicule  it  in  the  future  as  he  had  in  the  past." 


The  Money  Test,  —  (See  page  232.) 

I  have  before  me  a  little  pamphlet  entitled  "  Spiritualistn  and 
Charlatanism,  or  the  Tricks  of  the  Media,  embodying  an  Expose  of 
the  Manifestations  of  Modern  Spiritualism  by  a  Committee  of  Busi- 
ness Men  of  New  York."  The  committee  do  not  add  much  to  our 
stock  of  knowledge,  but  I  find  here  a  pithy  an  1  interesting  letter 
from  Henry  Slade,  in  reply  to  their  proposition  to  donate  five  hundred 
dollars  to  any  charitable  institution  if  he  would  give  them  proofs  of 


APPENDIX.  365 

direct  writing.  Under  date  of  New  York,  March  18,  1873,  he  re- 
marks : 

"Your  proposition  does  not  come  within  the  province  of  anything 
I  might  claim  in  regard  to  the  manifestation  of  writing  that  has  re- 
peatedly occurred  in  my  presence.  Therefore  I  have  no  warrant  or 
authority  for  accepting  it :  for  obvious  reasons.  You  propose  that 
/  shall  write  a  line  across  a  slate,  or  cause  a  pencil  to  write  a  line, 
without  myself  touching  either  slate  or  pencil. 

"  My  dear  sirs,  you  would  have  been  just  as  consistent  to  have 
made  this  proposition  to  your  nearest  neighbor  as  to  me, —  because  I 
claim  the  writing  that  has  so  often  occurred  in  my  presence  during  a 
period  of  some  years  is  a  phenomenon  over  which  I  have  no  control 
whatever.  Therefore  I  have  no  authority  to  say  that  it  will  occur 
again.   .  .   , 

"It  is  not  uncommon  for  me  to  sit  with  persons  for  these  mani- 
festations-and  fail  to  obtain  any.  This  is  no  disappointment  to  me. 
But  when  they  do  take  place,  my  surprise  can  hardly  be  less  than 
that  of  those  who  witness  it  for  the  first  time.  And  were  they  never 
to  occur  again,  it  would  be  no  evidence  against  the  genuineness  of 
those  witnessed  by  thousands  of  intelligent  men  and  women  whose 
testimony  would  be  taken  as  evidence  in  any  court  of  justice  upon 
any  otlier  question. 

"  This,  it  seems,  you  are  trying  to  overcome  by  declaring  that  you 
have  failed  to  witness  what  others  may  have  told  you  they  have  seen. 
If  that  is  satisfactory  to  you  it  certainly  is  to  me ;  for  I  am  fully 
aware  that  an  acceptance  or  denial  by  one  man,  or  any  number  of 
men,  will  make  no  difference  with  the  facts.  .  .  .  The  conditions 
you  propose  under  the  circumstances  in  this  case  would  create  that 
anxiety  of  mind  with  me  that  I  could  not  for  a  moment  expect  the 
manifestation  to  occur." 


Swedenhorgian  Antagonism.  —  (See  page  290.) 

Why  is  it  that  the  Rev.  Mr.  Mercer  and  other  orthodox  Sweden- 
borgians  are  so  opposed  to  the  Spiritualism  that  is  not  adopted  under 
their  forms  and  restrictions  ?  It  is  simply  because  our  free  Spiritual- 
ism conflicts  with  their  own  little  barren  system  of  ecclesiasticism ; 
a  system  entirely  outside  of  all  of  Swedenborg's  teachings,  and 
originated  by  one  Robert  Hindmarsh,  printer  in  London  (1759-1835), 
who  T» anted  a  priesthood  and  a  church.  To  him  the  so-called  "  New 
Jerusalem  Church"  owed  its  being;  and  it  is  his  influence  and  teach- 
jigs  and  not  Swedenborg's  that  now  rule  in  all  these  ilhberal  attacks 
on  a  free,  philosophical,  scientifically-based  Spiritualism. 


Phenomena  among  Indians.  —  (See  page  339.) 

See  a  letter  from  Chief  Justice  Larrabee,  of  Wisconsin,  to  the  late 
Senator  Tallmadge,  of  New  York,  giving  evidence  of  the  pnjvalence 


366  APPENDIX. 


of  well-known  spiritual  phenomena  among  the  North  American  In- 
dians. Clairvoyance,  independent  movements,  and  other  strange 
manifestations  are  clearly  proved. 

Seeing  in  The  Shaker,  a  monthlj--  publication  issued  at  Shaker  Vil- 
lage, N.  H.,  a  statement  of  phenomena  among  the  Indians  by  Gran- 
ville T.  Sproat,  who  as  fur  back  as  1S36  was  a  government  agent 
under  Gen.  Cass  among  the  Lake  Superior  Indians,  I  wrote  Mr. 
Sproat  and  received  from  him  (187G)  a  reply  authenticating  the  facts. 
In  the  year  1836,  Big  Buffalo,  the  chief  of  tlie  Ojibways  on  the  south 
shore,  lost  his  only  son,  and  was  terribly  depressed  thereby.  But 
soon  after  he  came  to  Mr.  Sproat  with  form  erect  and  a  joyful  aspect. 
"I  have  seen  him,"  he  exclaimed;  "  Onwi,  my  son,  is  still  alive! 
Yesterday  in  the  me-ta-wa  (sacred  dance)  I  saw  him.  We  were  in 
the  great  dancing-lodge ;  and  there  Onwi  came  and  joined  in  the 
dance.  He  spoke  to  us  ;  he  said  it  was  weakness  for  us  to  mourn  for 
him.  He  had  se 3n  our  departed  bfaves,  and  been  welcomed  by 
tliem.  His  step  was  light  as  a  fawn's ;  his  face  bright  as  the  sky 
overhead.  He  smoked  the  pipe  of  peace  with  us.  How  did  I  know 
it  was  he?  Did  I  not  mark  his  form,  his  features,  his  every  look? 
Was  he  not  dressed  in  the  very  coat  I  gave  him  —  a  present  from  the 
great  father  at  Washington ?  How  could  I  be  deceived.?  Ask  the 
aged  men  and  they  will  tell  you." 

"  I  did  ask  them,"  writes  Mr.  Sproat,  "and  heard  from  them  the 
same  report.  It  was  the  theme  of  conversation  in  every  wigwam 
of  the  camp.  The  old  men  spoke  of  it  in  an  undertone  with  their 
heads  bowed  as  if  in  reverence ;  and  one  day  I  heard  Wah-chus-co, 
the  great  seer  of  the  tribe,  —  taking  a  piece  of  birch-bark  and  draw- 
ing on  it  two  spheres  touching  each  other,  —  explain  to  his  listeners 
that  there  were  whole  bands  of  joyous  spirits  passing  from  one  sphere 
to  the  other,  thus  bringing  together  the  inhabitants  of  the  seen  and 
unseen  worlds." 


Fallibility  of  Spirits.  —  (See  page  340.) 

"  For  our  own  part,"  says  John  Page  Hopps,  "we  believe  that 
these  sensitive  beings  (mediums)  have  been  en  rapport  with  the  un- 
seen world ;  and  we  further  believe  that  this  accounts  for  and  ex- 
plains nearly  all  the  so-called  '  revelations  '  from  the  Most  High ;  but 
we  also  believe — and  this  is  the  point  of  urgent  interest  —  that  the 
spirit-influences  that  have  made  themselves  felt  have  been  as  diverse 
in  their  character  and  influences  as  could  possibly  be,  and  that  in 
many  cases  influences  that  might  almost  be  called  diabolical  have 
been  indorsed  with  a  'Thus  saith  the  lord.' 

"  Of  course  this  suggests  a  grave  danger,  and  we  admit  it;  but  it 
throws  a  flood  of  light  on  some  of  the  gravest  problems  of  ancient 
and  modern  times,  and  it  is  our  surest  safeguard  against  a  danger, 
pernicious  and  perilous.  Incursions  from  the  spirit  world  have  been 
a  great  fact  in  the  history  of  the  world  in  all  ages  ;  and  the  delusion 
that  every  such  incursion  comes  with  a  manifesto  or  revelation  from 
the  Almighty  has  been  a  curse  in  all  ages." 


APPENDIX.  •  367 

Palpable  Form-Manifestations.  —  (See  page  341.) 

These  manifestations  liave  taken  place  among  non-professional 
mediums,  whose  circumstances  placed  them  above  the  need  of  being 
paid.  A  notalile  instance  is  that  of  Charles  M.  Tay,  of  Charlestown, 
Mass.  (b.  1853,  d.  1876).  Mrs.  Emma  Hardinge  Britten,  one  of  the 
most  gifted  of  the  expounders  of  Spiritualism,  says  of  him  :  "Music, 
poetry,  and  art  formed  the  themes  of  his  pure  life  and  sinless  aims. 
At  length  the  buds  of  mediumship  burst  forth  into  radiant  blossom, 
and  Charles  became  the  minister  through  whom  the  invisible  opera- 
tors of  another  world  were  rendered  palpable  to  their  mortal  friends, 
and  messengers  of  the  glad  tidings  of  immortality.  Raps,  movements 
of  furniture,  writing,  both  inspirational  and  automatic,  were  freely 
given.  At  length  faces  were  seen,  forms  were  materialized,  and 
spirits  of  those  whose  bodies  '  lay  mouldering  in  the  grave,'  came 
clothed  in  flesh  and  blood,  walking,  talking,  and  making  merry  with 
their  earth-loves  once  again.  Exquisite  mnsic  was  made  by  spirits 
on  various  instruments.  Flowers  were  brought  and  letters  written 
by  the  hands  of  these  invisibles.  Whole  sentences  of  advice,  coun- 
sel, and  instruction  were  spelled  out  in  letters  on  the  sensitive  flesh. 
Every  form  of  demonstration  of  the  most  powerful  and  convincing 
character  was  given  free!-^".  without  money  and  without  price.  Pa- 
tient, gentle,  resigned,  true,  and  pure,  Charles  Tay  passed  from  this 
sphere  by  rapid  consumption;  but  moved  about  in  the  midst  of  his 
large  and  loving  circle  of  friends  to  the  last.  In  the  closing  hour 
of  all,  the  initials  of  his  departed  father's  name  (Rufus  L.  Tay,  the 
well-known  purchaser  in  1855  of  the  Webster  Farm,  at  Franklin,  N. 
H.)  appeared  on  the  young  man's  forehead,  beneatli  the  tender 
motlier's  hand,  as  she  wiped  away  the  dews  of  death  "  These  stig- 
mata are  a  common  phenomenon  in  Spiritualism;  I  have  repeatedly 
witnessed  them. 

Moses  Dow,  Esq.,  of  Charlestown,  Mass.,  the  well-known  propri- 
etor of  the  Waverley  Magazine,  testified  in  the  Banner  of  Light,  of 
March  22,  1873,  without  giving  names,  to  the  remarkable  character 
of  young  Tay's  free  mediumship.  At  his  seances  recognizable  forms 
appeared ;  roses,  fresh,  moist  and  cool,  as  if  just  plucked,  Avere  pro- 
duced ;  and  spirit-voices,  speaking  intelligibly  were  distinctly  heard. 
Mr.  Dow,  a  man  of  large  means,  and  of  whose  perfect  probity  and 
intelligence  as  an  investigator  no  one  can  have  a  doubt,  testifies  most 
emphatically  to  the  genuineness  of  the  phenomena  through  young 
Tay,  who  readily  submitted  to  the  severest  tests. 


The  Proofs  A.cGumulate.  —  (See  page  357.) 

In  the  London  Spiritualist  I  find  further  testimony  from  Dr.  Ni- 
chols. He  gives  an  account  of  remarkable  pneumatographic  phe- 
nomena that  occurred  in  the  light.  Of  the  medium  on  the  occasion 
he  says  (September,  1880):  "After  a  careful  watch  of  three  years 
I  liave  never  seen  the  slightest  reason  to  doubt  the  absolute  good 
faith  and  honesty  of  Mr.  William  Eglinton."     A  blank  card  was  ex- 


368  APPENDIX. 

amined,  a  corner  torn  off,  and  the  card  placed  with  a  bit  of  pencil  in 
a  solid  box,  one  owned  by  Dr.  Nichols  for  many  years.  The  box  was 
closed  and  the  hands  of  all  present  placed  on  the  cover.  Mr.  Eg- 
linton  said,  "Ask  for  something  to  be  written  in  any  language  you 
choose."  Dr.  Nichols  said,  "  We  have  had  Greek,  Latin,  and  French ; 
let  it  be  German."  In  a  few  moments,  at  a  signal  by  raps,  the  box 
was  opened,  and  on  the  card  was  found  the  following  : 

"  Komm  I  wir  wollen  dir  verspreehen 
Kottunof  aus  clem  tiefsten  Schwartz 
Pfeiler,  Saulen  kaun  man  brechen, 
Aber  nicht  eia  festes  Hertz."  —  Goethe. 

The  next  experiment  was  to  throw  all  the  blank  cards  into  a  corner 
of  the  room,  and  after  them  the  pencil,  the  lead  of  which  was  now 
broken  off  within  the  wood.  In  a  few  minutes  signal  raps  were 
heard.  Dr.  Nichols  passed  to  the  cards,  and  picking  up  one  of  them 
found  written  upon  it,  in  an  entirely  different  hand  from  those  pre- 
viously received : 

»'  MoNS.  Hargrave  : 

La  bonne  fortune,  et  la  mauvaise,  sent  necessaires  a  Phomme,  pour  le  rendre 
habile;  et  eussi  la  patience  est  amere  mais  son  fruit  est  doux." 

Below  this  was  the  word  "  renversez,"'  and  on  turning  the  card 
over  was  found  written  on  the  other  side  a  sentence  of  nine  words, 
thought  by  Dr.  Nichols  to  be  Hungarian,  or  one  of  the  similar  lan- 
guages of  the  East  of  Europe. 

Again,  on  a  marked  card  placed  with  a  pen  between  two  slates,  and 
these  held  firmly  together  on  the  table  in  the  light  by  Dr.  Nichols, 
Mrs.  Nichols,  and  Mr.  Eglinton,  there  appeared,  written  with  ink,  in 
a  most  beautiful  and  delicate  hand,  like  the  finest  plate-engraving, 
the  following : 

' '  Lord,  who  shall  dwell  in  thy  Tabernacle,  or  who  shall  rest  in  thy  holy  hill  ? 
—  Qui  ingreclHur  sine  macula^  et  operatur  justitiam  .•  Qui  loquitur  veritatem  in 
corde  sno,  qui  non  agit  dolum  in  lingua  sua:  Nee  fecit  proximo  siio  malum,  et 
02)probrium  non  accepit  ndversus  2^^'oximos  suos,  etc.,  etc. — The  Lord's  Taber- 
nacle is,  at  this  present,  in  this  room.  Evil,  corruption,  vice,  nor  wickedness 
cannot  get  entrance.  Why  ?  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall  inherit 
the  Kin<:i^dom  of  Heaven." 

All  this  must  have  been  written  in  about  twenty  seconds.  Dr. 
Nichols  concludes  :  "  In  a  good  light  everything  was  done  exactly  as 
I  have  described.  How  a  steel  pen  could  write  on  a  card  between 
two  slates  held  firmly  together  on  the  table,  with  the  inkstand  on  the 
upper  slate,  I  am  not  able  to  explain  —  I  only  know  that  it  was  done. 
The  pen  put  dry  between  the  slates  was  wet  with  ink  when  I  took  it 
out."     Still  the  writing  may  have  been  done  without  the  pen. 


Channing^  Kant,  and  Swede7iborg. 

I  have  spoken,  in  my  account  of  Mrs.  Mowatt  (page  224),  of  her 
discussions,,  while  somnambulic  with  Channing,  on  the  subject  of 
Swedeuborg.     The  great  Unitarian  divine,  while  in  accord  with  the 


APPENDIX.  369 

Swedish  seer  on  many  points,  was  disposed  to  question  the  too  hu- 
man and  earth-like  character  of  some  of  his  descriptions  of  scenes 
and  occupations  in  the  spirit-world.  Mrs.  Mowatt  defended  Swe- 
denborg  with  discrimination ;  she  admitted  that  some  of  his  visions 
were  probably  subjective  and  imaginary,  but  contended  that  much  of 
his  testimony  was  in  accord  with  the  general  report  which  spirits 
give  of  the  state  of  things  in  the  next  stage  of  being.  She  was  far 
from  regarding  him  as  infallible.  She  thought  he  was  in  error  in 
describing  the  Moravians  and  other  Christian  dissenters  as  in  a  bad 
stat^  because  of  their  doctrinal  tenets.  She  maintained  that  the  only 
real  heresy  was  the  wrong  thinking  which  led  to  wrong-doing.  So 
long  as  a  man  was  sincere  and  pure  in  heart,  his  mistakes  on  doc- 
trinal and  historical  points  could  have  no  very  serious  or  permanent 
effect  upon  his  future  happiness. 

Channing  was  much  pleased  and  interested,  for  he  found  her  giv- 
ing back  to  him,  in  many  instances,  his  own  thoughts ;  but  at  the 
same  time  maintaining  independent  views  on  some  points.  That  she 
was  in  a  state  quite  distinct  from  her  normal  state  he  was  fully  satis- 
fied. Her  earnest  but  childlike  manner,  the  tone  of  her  voice,  the 
character  of  her  thoughts,  her  eyes  with  the  lids  hanging  loose  and 
the  balls  rolled  up,  were  all  peculiarities  that  did  not  fail  to  impress 
him.  When  she  passed  back  into  her  normal  state,  and  all  her  som- 
nambulic experiences  were  a  blank  to  her,  it  was  sometimes  desira- 
ble that  she  should  recall  some  one  of  them.  This  I  could  cause  her 
to  do  by  an  act  of  volition,  and  placing  my  hand  on  her  head,  with- 
out uttering  a  word.  Here  was  another  unequivocal  proof  of  the 
actual  objective  effect  of  will-power.  Out  of  many  incidents  I  could 
cause  her  to  recall  and  announce  unhesitatingly  the  particular  one 
on  which  I  fixed  my  thoughts ;  and  she  would  remain  ignorant  of  all 
the  rest.  The  phenomenon  was  confirmed  by  hundreds  of  repeti- 
tions. 

We  were  in  the  same  house  vvith  Channing  some  two  weeks.  I 
had  known  him  from  my  early  youth.  We  all  had  an  affectionate 
parting  with  him,  little  supposing  that  it  was  the  last  interview  we 
were  to  have  here  below  with  this  truly  great  and  saintly  man. 

In  a  deeply  interesting  little  volume  entitled  "  Swcdenborg  and 
Channing:  Showing  the  many  and  remarkable  Agreements  in  the 
beliefs  and  teachings  of  these  writers,"  Mr.  B.  F.  Barrett,  to  whose 
parallel  passages  I  am  here  indebted,  makes  out  a  strong  case  of 
coincidence  in  moral  and  religious  thought.  Channing  told  me 
emphatically  he  could  not  accept  Swedenborg's  topography  of  the 
spirit-world,  or  regard  him  as  otherwise  than  deluded  in  some  of  his 
''memorable  relations";  but  it  is  interesting  to  see  how  fully  in  ac- 
cord Channing  was  with  all  the  facts  and  inferences  of  Spiritualism 
in  regard  to  essentials.  In  answer  to  a  letter  of  inquiry  from  Mr. 
Barrett,  Dr.  Channing's  son  wrote:  "Mrs.  Anna  Cora  Mowatt  has 
reported  a  conversation  with  my  father  about  Swcdenborg,  which 
took  place  at  Lenox  in  the  summer  of  1842.  This  is  a  definite,  au- 
thentic report,  colored,  of  course,  by  Mrs.  Mowatt's  personality." 

In  Chapter  IX.  of  Mrs.  Mowatt's  "Autobiography"  (1854),  Avill 
be  found  a  record  of  my  mesmeric  experiences  in  her  case.  The 
whole  was  revised  and  enlarged  by  me  before  publication.     In  it  I 

24 


370  APPENDIX. 

say,  in  a  letter  to  her:  "  In  times  of  extreme  emaciation,  when  you 
could  be  lifted  like  a  child,  and  when  all  who  looked  on  you  and 
heard  your  paroxysms  of  coughing  would  turn  away  with  the  per- 
suasion that  you  could  not  last  through  the  season,  you  had  always, 
in  your  somnambulic  state,  some  pleasantry  with  which  to  dispel  the 
fears  of  the  standsrs-by.  Your  views  of  death  were  so  serenely 
assured,  and  such  was  the  quiet  satisfaction  with  which  you  seemed 
to  look  forward  to  '  the  common  road  into  the  great  darkness,'  that, 
the  nearer  the  prospect  was  brought,  the  more  grateful  it  became. 
'  This  King  of  Terrors  was  the  Prince  of  Peace.'  The  separation  of 
tlie  waking  from  tlie  somnambulic  consciousness  Avas  most  complete. 
Kever,  by  any  accident,  could  I  discover  that  you  brought  into  your 
waking  state  the  sliglitest  recollection  of  what  occurred  in  your  som- 
nambulic; and  this  during  a  period  of  ^J/iree  years."  (In  the  body 
of  this  work  I  erroneously  set  down  the  period  as  two  years.)  The 
curious  reader  will  find  in  the  Autobiography  many  further  partic- 
ulars of  my  experiences. 

In  her  account  of  Channing  she  says  :  "He  then  told  me  that  he 
had  read  a  portion  of  Swedenborg's  works  witli  great  attention,  and 
he  reverenced  the  author,  although  the  doctrines  had  not  as  yet  car- 
ried the  same  conviction  to  his  mind  as  they  had  done  to  ours.  In 
the  subject  of  mesmerism  he  took  the  deepest  interest.  On  two 
occasions  he  persuaded  me  to  allow  myself  to  be  placed  under  the 
influence,  that  he  might  satisfy  himself  on  several  doubtful  points. 
One  was  of  the  possibility  of  mind  communicating  with  mind  without 
the  medium  of  language  or  any  material  sign.  His  experiment,  I 
believe,  convinced  him  that  this  could  be  the  case."  It  has  been 
well  remarked  that  "the  merest  trifles  are  interesting  that  suggest  to 
us  an  action  in  man  independent  of  his  jpresent  material  organ- 
ization." 

Swedenborg  says:  "After  the  dissolution  of  the  body,  a  man's 
spirit  appears  in  tne  spiritual  world  in  the  human  form  altogether  as 
in  the  natural  world."  And  Channing  says  (Memoirs,  Vol.  II. 
p.  22)  :  "  We  shall  be  the  same  beings  in  heaven  as  on  earth.  .  .  . 
When  Moses  and  Elijah  conversed  with  Jesus  on  the  Mount,  they 
appeared  in  the  human  form,  differing  from  ours  only  in  its  splendor." 

Swedenborg  says:  "Instantaneous  reformation  and  consequent 
salvation  would  be  comparatively  like  the  instantaneous  conversion 
of  an  owl  into  a  dove,  and  of  a  serpent  into  a  sheep."  Channing 
says :  "I  know  but  one  salvation  for  a  sick  man,  and  that  is  to  give 
him  health.  So  I  know  but  one  salvation  for  a  bad  man,  and  that  is 
to  make  him  truly,  thoroughly,  conscientiously  good,  — to  break  the 
chains  of  evil  habits,  — to  raise  him  to  tlie  dignity  and  peace  of  a 
truly  religious  life." 

According  to  Swedenborg,  heaven  is  a  state  and  not  a  place ;  so 
likewise  is  hell.  Both,  he  says,  are  within  the  soul.  Pure,  unselfish 
love  makes  the  one;  and  a  supreme  self-love  makes  the  other. 
Channing  says  (^Works,  Vol.  IV.  p.  52)  :  "I  learn  more  and  more 
that  the  great  springs  of  happiness  and  misery  are  in  the  mind,  and 
that  the  eff*orts  of  men  to  secure  peace  by  other  processes  than  by 
inward  purification,  are  vain  strivings.  Salvation,  heaven  and  hell, 
have  their  seat  in  the  soul." 


APPENDIX.  371 

Of  faith  in  immortality  Channing  says  :  "This  faith  is  lamentably 
weak  in  the  multitude  of  men.  To  multitudes,  Heaven  is  almost  a 
world  of  fancy.  It  wants  substance.  The  idea  of  a  world  in  which 
beings  exist  as  pure  spirits,  or  clothed  tvitJi  refined  and  spiritual 
frames,  strikes  tliem  as  a  fiction.  What  cannot  be  seen  or  touched 
appears  unreal.  This  is  mournful  but  not  wonderful ;  for  how  can 
men  who  immerse  themselves  in  the  body  and  its  interests,  and  cul- 
tivate no  acquaintance  with  their  own  souls  and  spiritual  powers, 
comprehend  a  higher  spiritual  life  ?  .  .  .  This  skepticism  as  to 
things  spiritual  and  celestial  is  as  irrational  and  unphilosophical  as  it 
is  degrading." 

Clianning  urges  it  upon  us  to  seek  some  clearer,  more  definite 
conception  of  the  future  state.  He  says:  "  That  world  seems  less 
real  for  want  of  some  distinctness  in  its  features.  We  should  all 
believe  it  more  firmly  if  we  conceived  of  it  more  vividly." 

Swedenborg  says  :  When  a  man  "  enters  the  spiritual  world,  or 
the  life  after  death,  he  is  in  a  body,  as  he  was  in  the  natural  world. 
He  sees  as  before ;  he  liears  and  speaks  as  before ;  and  when  he  is 
touched,  he  feels  as  before.  He  also  longs,  desires,  Mnshes,  thinks, 
reflects,  is  affected,  loves,  and  wills  as  before."  Clianning  says 
(Memoirs,  Vol.  II.  p.  212)  :  "We  shall  be  the  same  beings  as  on 
earth ;  we  shall  retain  our  present  faculties,  our  present  ati'ections, 
our  love  of  knowledge,  love  of  beauty,  love  of  action,  love  of  ap- 
probation, our  sympathy,  gratitude,  and  pleasure  in  success.  We 
shall  probably,  too,  have  bodies  not  very  different  from  what  we  now 
have." 

Swedenborg  says  :  "  This  I  can  positively  affirm,  that  a  spirit  has 
more  exquisite  sight,  and  also  more  exquisite  hearing,  than  a  man  in 
the  body;  and  what  will  seem  surprising,  a  more  exquisite  sense  of 
smell,  and  especially  of  touch;  for  spirits  see,  hear,  and  touch  each 
other,"  Channing  says  (^Works,  Vol.  IV.  p.  228)  :  "A  new  sense, 
a  new  eye,  might  show  the  spiritual  world  compassing  us  on  every 
side.  ...  Is  it  at  all  inconsistent  with  our  knowledge  of  nature  to 
suppose  that  those  in  heaven,  whatever  be  their  abode,  may  have 
spiritual  senses,  —  organs,  by  which  they  may  discern  the  remote  as 
clearly  as  we  do  tlie  near?" 

In  his  Memoirs  (Vol.  II.  p.  20),  Channing  says:  "We  need  not 
doubt  the  fact  that  angels  whose  home  is  in  heaven  visit  our  earth 
and  bear  a  part  in  our  transactions."  And  he  says  of  our  departed 
friends  :  "To  suppose  them  forgetful  of  the  world  where  they  began 
to  live,  is  to  make  that  life  worthless-,  and  to  blot  out  a  volume  of 
invaluable  experience.  .  .  .  Our  friends  who  leave  us  for  that  world 
do  not  find  themselves  cast  among  strangers.  .  .  .  The  closest  at- 
tachments of  this  life  are  cold,  distant,  stranger-like,  compared  with 
tlieirs.  .  .  .  We  are  too  apt  to  think  of  heaven  as  a  solemn  place. 
It  ought  to  be  viewed  by  us  as  a  place  of  cheerful  society.  .  .  .  Per- 
fect social  happiness  is  reserved  for  a  higher  stage  of  existence.  .  .  . 
This  happiness  would  be  wholly  lost,  were  men  in  heaven  to  lose 
their  peculiar  characters  ;  were  ail  to  be  cast  into  one  mould ;  were 
all,  in  becoming  perfect,  to  become  perfectly  alike."  All  this  corre- 
sponds with  what  Swedenborg  lias  to  say  on  tiie  subject 

Swedenborg  says  of  heaven:  "Iso  idle  person  is  tolerated  there. 


372  APPENDIX. 


no  slothful  vagabond,  no  indolent  boaster  of  others'  studies  and 
labors ;  but  every  one  must  be  industrious,  skilful,  attentive  and 
diligent  in  his  own  office  and  employment."  And  Channing  says  : 
"  The  truth  is,  that  all  action  on  earth,  even  the  intensest,  is  but  the 
sport  of  childhood,  compared  with  the  energy  andxactivity  of  that 
higher  life.     It  must  be  so." 

iSwedenborg  says:  "There  is  no  determinate  period  during  a 
man's  regeneration  at  which  he  may  say,  I  am  now  perfect."  Ciian- 
ning  says  :  "In  this  life  progression  is  the  universal  law.  Nothing 
is  brought  into  being  in  its  most  perfect  state.  ...  Is  it  not  natural 
to  expect  that  in  a  future  life  our  nature  will  be  progressive  ?  .  .  . 
Let  us  not  imagine  that  the  usefulness  of  the  good  is  finished' at 
death.  Then  ratlier  does  it  begin.  Death  has  expanded  their 
powers.  We  sliould  represent  them  to  our  minds  as  ascended  to  a 
higher  rank  of  existence,  and  admitted  to  co-operate  with  far  higher 
communities." 

If  there  is  one  great  lesson  uniformly  revealed  in  the  deeper  facts 
of  Spiritualism,  it  is  the  confirmation  of  Christ's  saying  that  as  we 
sow  we  shall  reap.  On  this  point  Channing  says  :  "  Let  us  not  listen 
for  a  moment  to  a  doctrine  so  irrational,  as  that  our  present  char- 
acters do  not  follow  us  into  a  future  world.  If  we  are  to  live  again, 
let  us  settle  it  as  a  sure  fact  that  we  shall  carry  with  us  our  present 
minds,  such  as  we  now  make  them;  that  we  shall  reap  good  or  ill 
according  to  their  improvement  or  corruption ;  and,  of  consequence, 
that  every  act  which  affects  character  will  reach  in  its  influence  be- 
yond the  grave,  and  have  a  bearing  on  our  future  weal  or  woe." 

How  perfectly  all  this  corresponds  with  what  we  get  in  those  com- 
munications (few  and  far  between,  I  grant)  which  come  to  us  with 
intrinsic  evidences  of  their  high  spiritual  authority !  Thus  we  see 
that  by  the  reverent  study  of  his  own  intuitions,  coupled  with  those 
which  plainly  actuated  the  life  of  Christ,  and  indicated,  though  per- 
haps not  unerringly,  the  essentials  of  all  religions,  Channing  arrived 
at  convictions  precisely  similar  to  those  prompted  or  justified  by  a 
study  of  the  facts  and  inferences  of  Modern  Spiritualism. 

Kant,  like  Channing,  was  an  intuitionalist  as  well  as  a  profound 
philosopher.  He  satisfied  himself  as  to  the  genuineness  of  Sweden- 
borg's  clairvoyant  powers,  and  has  left  an  interesting  letter  on  the 
subject;  but  he  too  regarded  many  of  the  so-called  visions  of  Swe- 
denborg  as  purely  subjective.  Of  tlie  latter's  clairvoyant  description 
of  the  great  Stockholm  fire  (July,  1759),  Kant,  who  investigated  the 
case  thoroughly,  writes,  "  What  can  be  brought  forward  against  the 
authenticity  of  the  occurrence.?"  He  admits  that  Swedenborg's  sys- 
tem corresponds  with  the  conclusions  of  his  own  philosophy,  and 
that  '■'■a  wonderful  agreement  exists  between  his  doctrines  and  the 
deepest  results  of  reason."  Accepting  Swedenborg,  as  most  Spirit- 
ualists do,  as  a  medium  and  seer  unsurpassed  in  authority,  yet  sub- 
ject to  error  and  inherited  prejudices,  in  spite  of  his  protest  to  the 
contrary,  they  receive  such  testimony  as  that  of  Kant  as  an  added 
corroboration  of  their  own  ethical  and  religious  inductions  from 
facts  which  they  have  empirically  verified. 


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